The wrangling between the Big Ten Network and technology and media giant Comcast – that had up until this point affected Comcast customers on the US’ West Coast – has now been ended.
A carriage dispute between Big Ten Network, the dedicated channel for the 18-team US college sport conference of that same name, and Comcast, had prevented customers of the Comcast Xfinity service from accessing that specific channel for over a month, with a blackout having been put in place.
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This dispute coincided with the first five weeks of the US college football season, and stopped fans across Washington, Oregon, and California, from watching the action. There are currently four colleges from those states active in the Big Ten – the University of Oregon, the University of Southern California, the University of California, and the University of Washington, which have all joined this year.
The original dispute came about because the Fox corporation, which owns the Big Ten Network, insisted that the channel needed to be placed by Comcast into a basic tier of access – as should be the case for all new teams in the Big Ten. Comcast, however, refused, and held out with that position for five weeks.
Now, however, the dispute has been ended, and action is now available via the Xfinity TV Popular TV package.
In a statement last Friday, Comcast announced: “We’re pleased the Big Ten Network will be available to Xfinity TV customers who subscribe to the Popular TV package in Oregon, Washington, and California in time for the action this weekend.”
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By GlobalDataThis resolution does, at least, come ahead of the start of the Big Ten college basketball season early next month.
The Big Ten’s 2024-25 college football regular season began on August 24 and runs through until January 1.
Aside from Big Ten Network, national coverage of the conference is provided by a combination of Fox Sports, CBS Sports, NBC Sports, through 2030.
A deal to that effect was unveiled in August, 2022.
