Sixteen years ago this week, Big Ten Network debuted as a polarizing company full of long-term promise but short-term consumer pain. Only a handful of cable companies distributed the creation in the Big Ten’s eight states, and it frustrated fans accustomed to watching locally televised games when they didn’t appear on ABC or the ESPN networks.
A year later, BTN achieved near-global distribution and hasn’t looked back. Fox, which then owned 49 percent of BTN, continued to expand its college football portfolio by securing the Big Ten championship game in 2011 and rebranding Speed TV to FS1 in 2013. Fox became the Big Ten’s primary rights holder in 2016 and now also has a controlling interest (63 percent) in BTN, which operates the league’s media rights agreements.
This year marks another turning point in the Big Ten’s television contract. For the first time since 1986, the league does not have a contract with ABC or with ESPN in 1988. The new frontier that former Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany and then-BTN (now Fox Sports) president Mark Silverman created in building BTN now results in the Big Ten being split into three linear networks, two Cable companies and a streaming service occur.
The 2023 season is a kind of bridge season. It serves as the Big Ten final of both divisional play and a 14-school unit. CBS is in its final season with the SEC and will air seven Big Ten games, then increasing to 15 starting in 2024. NBC has its first linear deal with a conference and will present nine Big Ten games on its streaming service Peacock. Fox will continue to showcase Big Ten football as the league’s premier provider in its branded “Big Noon” slot. FS1 and BTN will cover the league as before.
“In this first year of 2023, it’s a little bit more of what we’ve traditionally seen in the past, where from a network perspective it’s almost a little bit more about choose your own adventure,” said Kerry Kenny, chief operating officer from Big Ten. “They can rely on their strategy and internal research to figure out which weeks will be more valuable than others.”
What does this mean for Big Ten viewing habits this fall? Here’s a look at how each network will cover the league.
Fox/FS1
What’s new?: Not much for 2023. Fox remains the leading network broadcasting Big Ten football and will primarily broadcast games at 12:00 p.m. ET. Big Ten games will be broadcast in other windows if another conference-controlled game is selected for its Big Noon Kickoff. FS1 will televise games in multiple windows, including four on Friday evenings.
Number of games: Between 24 and 32 combined for Fox and FS1.
Remarkable: Fox once again won the Ohio State-Michigan contest, which is the highest-rated college football regular-season game each year. There’s also the Big Ten debut with Nebraska at Minnesota on Thursday night and Michigan at Penn State on Nov. 11. Although unannounced, Fox is scheduled to air “Penn State” at Ohio State on Oct. 21.
FS1’s four Friday games this year are Central Michigan at Michigan State (September 1), Virginia at Maryland (September 15), Wisconsin at Purdue (September 22) and Nebraska at Illinois (October 6).
“For this 2023 season and for the past six years, Fox has the No. 1 overall pick in this draft,” Kenny said. “But all of our partners will have great access to obtain No. 1 picks in a matter of weeks over the course of the season.”
Iowa will play at Penn State on September 23, a game that will be televised by CBS. (Jeffrey Becker/USA Today)
CBS
What’s new?: It’s a new era for CBS, which has never had a Big Ten-only rights deal. The last time regular-season Big Ten football aired on CBS, the league jointly negotiated its contract with the Pac-12. This is a crossover year for CBS, which is finalizing its long-standing contract with the SEC and adding seven Big Ten games to its schedule. In 2024, that total will more than double.
Number of games: 7
Remarkable: CBS has picked some interesting contests for its first Big Ten season, from Ohio State at Indiana (Saturday) and Northwestern at Rutgers (Sunday) to a primetime white out (Iowa at Penn State, Sept. 23) and a black Friday curtain raiser (Iowa in Nebraska, November 24). CBS also airs UNLV on September 9 in Michigan and two midday ET games on October 28 and November 4.
“For us, 2023 is something of a transition year as we fulfill the obligations of our SEC deal and 2024 is really the first full year of our launch,” said Dan Weinberg, executive vice president of programming at CBS. “But we worked very, very well with the conference to put together a nice seven-game schedule this year, including a prime-time game and a Thanksgiving Friday game. So we’re excited.”
NBC
What’s new?: NBC has been trying to break into the conference ranks for more than a decade, starting with a bid for the Pac-12 rights in 2011. This is the first time NBC has bid on a conference and the combination of primetime Big Ten and Notre Dame tied is afternoon football make it a strong unit.
NBC is expected to broadcast 15 games this year, 13 of which will be in prime time. The two exceptions are when Notre Dame has a prime-time kickoff.
Number of games: 15
Remarkable: NBC’s primetime deal for the final three weeks of November caused some problems for some Big Ten athletic directors. The Big Ten’s old contract prevented kickoffs in late November for logistical and weather reasons. Ohio State agreed to host a night game against Michigan State, and the Spartans will host Penn State indoors in Detroit on Black Friday as part of a compromise.
“We worked closely on this,” said Jon Miller, president of partnerships and acquisitions for NBC Sports. “(Athletics Director) Ohio State’s Gene Smith was great and we got to play the Ohio State-Michigan State game on November 11th. Obviously we have Penn State up at Ford Field on Black Friday.” Being able to host the most compelling prime time encounters is important to us and our company as a whole.”
NBC debut with Penn State hosting West Virginia on Saturday. Irish host Ohio State will also air on September 23 as part of his Notre Dame deal.
peacock
What’s new?: Everything when it comes to Peacock. This has angered some Big Ten fans, who are now realizing they need a streaming option for maybe a game, maybe two of their team. (Peacock also exclusively streams a Notre Dame game.) Peacock is available on most TVs with a Fire TV Stick or other streaming device with an HDMI port and Wi-Fi for a monthly fee.
Michigan and Penn State each face non-conference opponents in their first two weeks at Peacock, while Peacock pulled off a coup with Washington in Week 3 at Michigan State. Six more Big Ten games will go to Peacock over the course of the season.
Number of games: 9
Remarkable: According to Peacock Playbook, NBC reruns of “The Office” claim the top streaming category for fans of all 14 schools, but what’s next? For Illinois, Michigan State, Minnesota, and Ohio State, it is Yellowstone. For fans from Indiana, Maryland, Nebraska, Northwestern and Wisconsin, it’s That 70s Show. “WWE” is catching on in Iowa and Rutgers, while Michigan fans favor “Parks & Recreation.” Rounding out the list is “Everybody Loves Raymond” at Purdue and “Law & Order: SVU” for Penn State fans.
GO DEEPER
Michigan ushers in the Big Ten’s Peacock Era. Is everyone ready?
BTN
What’s new?: This is the 17th football season in college athletics’ first fully operational all-sports network. Not much has changed in terms of coverage of games. BTN had high-profile crews from the start in Thom Brennaman, Charles Davis and Charissa Thompson, who performed in the inaugural Appalachian State at Michigan debut. The network promotes several future headliners and then replaces them every few years with the next wave of up-and-coming talent.
Number of games: 41
Remarkable: BTN doesn’t always have the worst games on their weekly list. Universities have spent too much time and money turning this into a subpar football product.
“Every Big Ten team will have at least two games on BTN, at least one of which is a conference game,” Kenny said. “That really sets them apart from some of the other conferencing networks out there, just by making sure everyone is playing on BTN.”
ABC/ESPN
What’s new?: It used to be unthinkable that the Big Ten wouldn’t have a deal with ABC/ESPN. Considering that polls and opinion are more important in college football than in any other sport, no conference before has dared to evade ESPN’s juggernaut. But the Big Ten broke away from ESPN, first with BTN for secondary rights, then with Fox as primary rights holder. This year, the Big Ten abandoned ESPN entirely.
“ESPN no longer has sole responsibility; We split from them, started our own network and introduced Fox as a competitor,” said former Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany. “When that happened, not only did ESPN lose the quasi-monopoly over college football that the NCAA used to have, but ESPN had it for a good 20 years until we introduced Fox.”
Remarkable: The Big Ten teams will continue to play regular-season games on ABC/ESPN, but they will come from television deals from other leagues. There are five Big Ten games scheduled in the first three weeks, highlighted by Wisconsin at Washington State on Sept. 9 on ABC. During the postseason, every Big Ten bowl game will be broadcast on ABC, ESPN or ESPN2.
2024 and beyond
The television situation will be streamlined in 2024 with CBS getting a full share of Big Ten football. The goal is to create a consistent time frame for Big Ten football, with Fox at 12:00 p.m. ET, CBS at 3:30 p.m. ET and NBC at 7:30 p.m. ET. The Big Ten will also become an 18-school conference with the additions of USC, UCLA, Washington and Oregon.
“These three networks for the first 42 or 45 picks — depending on the length of the season — choose which weeks they’re at the No. 1 pick position, the No. 2 pick position, or the No. 3 pick position.” “Pick position is in position,” Kenny said. “Once you’ve picked the top three picks of the season for each of those weeks, it goes to FS1, Peacock, and BTN, who participate in the draft and select the remaining picks in each of those weeks beyond that.”
As Fox provides funding for the Big Ten to add Washington and Oregon next year, the Fox family of networks will air more games in non-traditional windows. That means more Friday night games and late evening kickoffs on Saturday. These games will appear on either Fox, FS1 or BTN, but it is unclear where this pick will land in the draft process.
(Top photo: Frank Jansky / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)