Fox and Comcast have begun a new round of negotiations regarding carriage agreements and college football fans are caught in the middle. According to John Ourand of Sports Business Journal’s John Ourand, Fox Sports President Mark Silverman has characterized the company’s attempt to secure Big Ten Network’s spot on Comcast systems as “the beginning of a carriage fight.”
Big Ten football fans that are also Comcast subscribers may be in for a surprise when they go to watch games on FS1 this season. The cable company paid a surcharge to Fox for those games. That agreement and the 10-year carriage agreement Comcast signed with the Big Ten Network expire next month. According to Silverman, Comcast has not been willing to engage in negotiations on a new contract.
Comcast dropped the Big Ten Network from out of market systems in April. Silverman says Fox, which owns 51% of the Big Ten Network, was given no warning that would happen. Fox has begun a campaign aimed at Comcast subscribers to voice their frustrations directly to Comcast regarding the Big Ten Network’s disappearance from the company’s XFinity cable systems outside of the conference footprint.
Comcast Xfinity customers could miss every Big Ten football game on Big Ten Network and FS1. Find out more. https://t.co/G9ZK5TngUC pic.twitter.com/eLQAdUHn5p
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) July 24, 2018
