Big Ten Network- still talking?

Ok, I have talked to my family about a dozen times. I am fed up with my cable and want to get DirectTv to watch the Big Ten Network. But it will cost me more and I get less. They are supportive and give me leeway to do as I want. NEW HOPE has arisen.

BTN President Mark Silverman and Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany and representatives of Fox Sports — which holds a 49 percent ownership share of the network — have resumed talks earlier this week with Comcast, the nation’s largest cable provider, as well as Charter. The sides had not held talks for more than a month.

“I’m reluctant to say anymore, but they have kept us abreast of the negotiations and who is involved,” Alvarez of the University of Wisconsin told his athletic board Friday at its monthly meeting.

Previously, the chief obstacle had been the Big Ten Network’s insistence that it be carried on no higher a price tier than expanded basic. The major cable operators preferred placement on a sports tier, arguing that BTN’s asking price per subscriber — $1.10 in some deals it has brokered with smaller operators — was too high.

The impasse has created much consternation among cable subscribers who were unable to watch four Rose Bowl bound Illini football games this fall — – and face the prospect of not being able to see a host of winter sports events, including the more than 15 men’s basketball games scheduled for BTN.

Pity me.