As expected, the Big Ten Network and Comcast Corp., the nation’s largest cable company, finally have reached a carriage deal.
But while the deal announced by BTN and Comcast in a news release Thursday may provide a potential framework for deals between BTN and Charter Communications and Time Warner, Wisconsin’s two major cable providers, a UW-Madison professor of telecommunications who follows cable issues closely is pessimistic about deals being done in time for the 2008 college football season.
The University of Wisconsin’s first football game is Aug. 30 — ironically the one-year anniversary of the launch of BTN.