As the 2024 college football season officially kicks off, new Big Ten members Oregon, Washington, USC and UCLA could all see TV blackouts on Comcast’s Xfinity pay TV platform this weekend due to an ongoing carrier dispute.

Washington’s soccer game against former Pac-12 conference rival Oregon State on Monday night was the first match impacted.

When fans in the coverage area of the four programs attempt to watch the Big Ten Network, they are redirected to a Big Ten website which urges them to “take action now” and call Comcast.  

Also Read: New Conference Alignments, Expanded Playoffs Mark Changes for Upcoming College Football Season

If the impasse between the cable giant and the regional sports network isn’t solved by Saturday, Comcast will continue to black out live events involving the four new Big Ten schools in their local markets. 

That includes third-ranked Oregon's season opener against Idaho on Saturday afternoon, and Washington's first game against Weber State on Saturday night. (USC plays LSU on ESPN Sunday night and UCLA opens against Hawaii Saturday on CBS and Paramount Plus.)

All four West Coast schools are beginning their first academic year under the Big 10 banner after decades of allegiance to the venerable but now forsaken Pac-12. 

The disagreement reportedly hinges on Comcast’s refusal to pay higher in-market rates for the four new Big Ten programs, following their new addition to the division. 

The Big Ten Network, a joint venture between Fox and the Big Ten athletic conference, said in a statement that Comcast “declined to expand along with us.

“The Big Ten Network is proud to present an expanded slate of live sporting events featuring the newest members of the B1G conference," the network added. "However, most Comcast subscribers will not see these games. Comcast Xfinity viewers in many areas will not have access to live broadcasts of the highly anticipated inaugural B1G season games for Oregon, UCLA, USC and Washington.”

Comcast's response: “We’re sensitive to the impact these costs have on our customers and have been in discussions with Fox and the Big Ten Network to find a solution to make certain former Pac-12 games available to the people who want them while not forcing others to pay for content they don’t want to watch.  We hope to be able to reach a fair agreement with FOX and the Big Ten Network to be able to offer these games to our customers.” 

The Tv sports world will be focused on Arizona this weekend as Fox televises Super Bowl LVII, part of a lineup of live sports events airing this weekend. 

Fox on Sunday will televise Super Bowl LVII featuring the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles from State Farm Stadium in Arizona. Fox Sports NFL play-by-play announcers Kevin Burkhardt and Gregg Olsen will call their first Super Bowl on the network. 

Also: Fox's Kevin Burkhardt Is Ready to Call Super Bowl LVII

On the ice, ABC will air an NHL afternoon doubleheader featuring the Tampa Bay Lightning-Dallas Stars and the Washington Capitals-Boston Bruins contests. The network will also hit the basketball court Saturday with a primetime telecast between the Los Angeles Lakers and Golden State Warriors, as well as a Sunday afternoon telecast featuring the Memphis Grizzlies-Boston Celtics game. 

In the ring, Showtime on Saturday will air a February 11 junior lightweight title bout between Rey Vargas and O’Shaquie Foster. In the octagon, ESPN Plus Saturday will offer the UFC 284 pay-per-view fight card featuring a main event bout between Islam Makhachev and Alexander Volkanovski.

Weekend games featuring top 10-ranked men’s college basketball teams starts with third-ranked Alabama taking on Auburn on ESPN, fourth-ranked Arizona facing Staford on ESPN2 and  fifth-ranked Texas hosting West Virginia on ESPN2. Other games include No. 7 UCLA-Oregon (ESPN), No. 8 Virginia-Duke (ESPN), No. 9 Kansas-Oklahoma (CBS) and No. 10 Marquette-Georgetown (FS1).

On Sunday, top-ranked Purdue takes on Northwestern on the Big Ten Network. 

Elsewhere, CBS and Golf Channel will offer weekend coverage of the Phoenix Open PGA golf tournament.■  

The first weekend of October’s live TV sports schedule begins on the baseball diamond as Major League Baseball enters the final weekend of the 2022 regular season, highlighted by the NL East division battle between the New York Mets and Atlanta Braves.

The Mets lead the defending World Series champion Braves by one game in the division heading into a crucial three-game series beginning Friday night. On Saturday, Fox will televise game two of Mets-Braves, while the third and final game will air Sunday on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball telecast.

Saturday’s college football schedule begins in Missouri as top-ranked Georgia takes on the Tigers on the SEC Network, while second-ranked Alabama battles Arkansas on CBS. Third-ranked Ohio State takes on Rutgers on the Big Ten Network, and Fox will televise fourth-ranked Michigan’s game with Big Ten rival Iowa.

No. 5 Clemson will host No. 10 NC State on ABC, No. 6 USC will host Arizona State on ESPN, No. 7 Kentucky meets Ole Miss on ESPN and No. 9 Oklahoma State battles Baylor on Fox.

Sunday’s NFL action features an early morning NFL Network telecast from London featuring the Minnesota Vikings and the New Orleans Saints. After Sunday afternoon regional NFL game telecasts on CBS and Fox, NBC will air live the Kansas City Chiefs-Tampa Bay Buccaneers game on Sunday Night Football.

English Premier League soccer games will air on USA Network and Peacock throughout the weekend, while ABC and FS1 will televise Major League Soccer games on Sunday.

On Sunday, NBC will air the NASCAR Cup YellaWood 500 auto race, while FS1 televises the NHRA Midwest Nationals drag racing competition.

In the Octagon, ESPN Plus on Saturday will stream a UFC Fight Night card featuring a main event bout between female straw-weights Mackenzie Dern and Yan Xiaonan. ■

The New Year’s weekend slate of live TV sports starts Saturday on the football field with five college football bowl games slated to air on across ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC. The Outback Bowl kicks off the day with Penn State facing Arkansas on ESPN2, followed by the Citrus Bowl matching Iowa against Kentucky on ABC. 

ESPN will televise three college football bowl games including the Fiesta Bowl (Oklahoma State-Notre Dame), Rose Bowl (Utah-Ohio State) and Sugar Bowl (Baylor-Mississippi). 

The penultimate week of the 2021 NFL season begins Sunday afternoon with regional game coverage on Fox and CBS, followed by NBC’s Sunday Night Football, featuring a battle between NFC Central rivals the Minnesota Vikings and Green Bay Packers. 

Top-10 ranked men’s college basketball teams hitting the court this weekend include No. 1 Baylor’s matchup Saturday against eighth-ranked Iowa State on ESPNU, and 10th-ranked Michigan State’s game against Northwestern Sunday on Big Ten Network. 

On Saturday, Fox Sports will step into the boxing ring with a pay-per-view fight card featuring heavyweights Luis Ortiz and Charles Martin, while TNT will hit the ice with a primetime NHL Winter Classic outdoor game between the St. Louis Blues and the Minnesota Wild. 

On Sunday, USA Network will feature two English Premier League soccer games, while ESPN airs the high school football All-Star game. ■ 

With the Big Ten belatedly kicking off its college football season, the Big Ten Network unveiled a new logo and branding package on Friday.

The new logo will be used on all of the network’s linear and digital platforms. The network has also created logos using the colors of all 14 teams in the conference.

The Big Ten Network will also be launching a brand ad campaign with a 30-second spot produced by Troika.

“Since the Big Ten Network was created in 2007, our mission has been to serve as THE destination for fans and alumni on all things Big Ten,” said François McGillicuddy, president of the network, a joint venture of Fox and the Big Ten Conference.  “The new look leans heavily on the iconic 'B1G' mark, which has come to represent the athletic and academic success of our 14 Big Ten universities, and underscores the nature of who we are and what we do.”

A revamped Big Ten Network Plus subscription service, featuring live streams of non-televised events and replays of televised events, is scheduled to launch in the coming weeks.

FloSports, a subscription-based OTT service dedicated to sports such as wrestling, swimming,  volleyball, cycling, gymnastics, and softball, has inked a deal with Big Ten Network (BTN) that gives it the distribution rights to more than 1,000 non-televised BTN events.

Events tied to the FloSports deal, which include basketball and ice hockey games, exclusive to BTN Plus, a service that costs $119.95 per year or $14.95 for a “Conference Pass” and less for offerings that are tied to individual schools in the conference. Following the new deal with FloSports, BTN Plus will continue to be available within BTN2Go, the 24/7 online video stream of the Big Ten Network, with no charge to current subs.

Related: OTT Players Could Change Television’s Sports Game [subscription required]

FloSports will offer BTN events on sport-specific subscription channels such as FloWrestling, FloTrack and FloVolleyball.

“We’re excited to partner with the Big Ten Network, as they bring incredible student-athletes and events to our die-hard community of sports fans,” FloSports co-founder and CEO Martin Floreani said, in a statement. We look forward to building up these event properties to bring more value to the events, athletes, and fans.”

Launched in 2006, FloSports landed a $21 million B round last fall, with Discovery Communications and WWE among the contributors. FloSports surpassed 150,000 subscribers following a record Q1 2017.

“Our subscriptions are really driven by the growing fan base of the individual sports that we’re in. Each sport gives us a different view, but when you add them all together, we’re creating a massive global audience of highly passionate and engaged fans,” Floreani said in an interview (subscription required) earlier this year.

Mediacom Communications said it has renewed its carriage deal with the Big Ten Network. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Big Ten Network, a joint venture between the Big Ten athletic conference and Fox Networks (which operates the network), provides access to more than 1,000 sporting events each year including football, basketball and numerous Olympic sports. Mediacom is the fifth largest cable operator in the country, serving more than 1.3 million video and broadband customers in the Midwest and Southeast.     

Mediacom -- which is the biggest cable provider in the state of Iowa, home of Big Ten member school the University of Iowa -- was among several cable providers that held out for about a year before launching BTN in 2008. 

The Big Ten Network is looking forward to football season.

After a few years in which the conference’s best teams were question marks, last season ended with an exclamation point as Ohio State won the first college football playoff to become national champions.

Instead of simply counting the days until kickoff, Big Ten Network — a joint venture between the conference and Fox Networks Group — is launching a new original show Wednesday night (Aug. 19) that takes advantage of its access to the Buckeyes.

Scarlet and Gray Days: Inside Ohio State Training Camp sounds a bit like HBO’s popular Hard Knocks series that brings its camera to an NFL team’s training camp each preseason. The series is narrated by actor J.K. Simmons, who won the 2015 Oscar for his supporting role in Whiplash. Simmons is an Ohio native, a Buckeye fan, and attended Ohio State.

“Over our nearly eight-year history, BTN has consistently demonstrated an ability to tell the story of our conference, schools and athletes via original programming,” BTN president Mark Silverman said. “As a testament to our track record, Ohio State is trusting us to do just that as the Buckeyes embark on yet another potentially historic season.”

The series should offer some drama. Coach Urban Meyer needs to pick a quarterback in campaign before defending its title. And the team will face a challenge from Jim Harbaugh, who left the San Francisco 49ers to coach Ohio State’s archrival, Michigan.

Read more at broadcastingcable.com.