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BIG TEN CONFERENCE MEDIA DAYSJuly 28, 2011Mark SilvermanCHICAGO, ILLINOIS THE MODERATOR: We now welcome Mark Silverman, BTN President. We'll have Mark make an opening statement. MARK SILVERMAN: Good to see a lot of you again. Our fifth season on the air. This is the time when you turn to the person next to you and say, Has it really been five years? That's what we do here in Chicago. It's unbelievable how quickly it has gone. We've now become a true national network. We're available now in close to 80 million homes across the country. We have over 45 million subscribers. Half of our subscribers are actually outside the Big Ten area as opposed to inside the Big Ten area. We're representing the Big Ten brand throughout the country. The numbers continue to grow. Our ratings grew 15% over the previous year. We've grown every single year we've been on the air. We're continuing to make viewership a higher priority for us and continue to grow in that area as well. We'd like to welcome Nebraska. We're thrilled to have Nebraska content now available to the Big Ten. We are happy to announce that we've reached agreement with all the major cable and satellite providers. We previously announced we had reached agreement with Dish and Time Warner. We'd like to add Cox to that list, as well. We look forward to serving the Nebraska fans and the Big Ten as well. We have a new logo that many of you are aware of. The BTN really came to how we were referring to ourselves. Many of you would talk about the network as you would covered it. It was very natural progression for us. We'll be identifying ourselves more often as BTN. We're still the Big Ten network, we'll refer to ourselves as that as well, but you'll see us calling ourselves BTN more often. We have a great overall new look and set. All of that will be debuting this fall. It will almost be a relaunch of the entire network and we'll look completely different than we have in the past year. In addition, on a new front, our programming, we'll be launching our 'Football Fix' every weekday starting at 7:00. We'll have football-oriented programming throughout the week. Some of returning shows include "Big Ten Football and Beyond,' 'Big Ten Break Down,' 'The Pulse,' as well as in basketball season, 'The Journey.' For some new programming, we're going to have 'Big Ten Icons,' will return. Keith Jackson will be hosting our second season of the show. We'll be focusing this year on the coaches, historical iconic coaches in the Big Ten. Also a show called 'BTN Live,' viewer-oriented, talking to our key hosts, asking questions, commenting on what's going on in the Big Ten. With big, a great new show, we're going to focus on alums and students in the Big Ten schools, how they give back in their communities. Also will have an online component. Finally 'Tailgate 48,' we've done a tailgate show just about every year. We've revamped it this year, retooled show. We think it will be interesting and a little bit different take for our fans. Lastly on the programming front, a big change for us is we have greater flexibility on football Saturdays. The ABC exclusivity in the late afternoon window has now been lifted and the network will have the opportunity to air games not only at noon eastern time, but at 3:30 or later eastern times a well as in prime time. You've seen our first three-week schedule. Each of those three weeks we have doubleheaders during the day. When we have a prime time game, that will continue into the regular season. It's a conference season. You will see more doubleheaders when we have that opportunity to do so. It won't be every week. You'll see a lot more later starts which I know will be embraced by many of the fans and the schools that we've been talking to about this. We think it's a great opportunity to give viewers to watch the network the entire day and night on Saturdays. We have a couple new digital advances for the network. First, we now have the Big Ten digital network. BTN.com is partnering with the websites of all the schools. We'll be able to promote school websites, interchangeably on air. It will be something where we think it will be a much greater vehicle online for viewers to enjoy more content. Finally, as we announced earlier today, 'BTN To Go,' a product we've been working hard on, the number one requested item from our viewers, when can I watch the network, can I watch it on my phone. The answer starting this fall is yes. It's available to all subscribers of the BTN through your cable or satellite provider. You must be a BTN subscriber to have access to the product. It will include classic games, content on demand, scores, stats, something that we think all of you and the Big Ten fans will be really happy to have. If you have your kid's soccer game on Saturday, you're on vacation, out of the market, verify you're a BTN subscriber and you'll be able to much Washington it. For that this is a big year for us. We're thrilled with Nebraska, a lot of new programs, a lot of new things going on digitally, a brand-new look on air. We're looking forward to the season beginning. Q. With the addition of Nebraska that you just mentioned, it obviously gives you a lot more subscribers in the western part of the United States. Talk a little bit about that. MARK SILVERMAN: Yeah. The most important thing Nebraska brings is we are now even more nationally relevant than ever before. We're adding one of the top five or six football programs in history to a conference that already have three of the top five or six. Anytime you can increase your national relevance, it's something that's really positive for the network. It helps with distribution, ratings, advertisers. As expansion was going on last year, the idea of adding Nebraska never really occurred, that the network would have that opportunity. It benefits the network in many, many different ways. Really overall, it's that we'll be able to be more of a force nationally for viewers to watch us wherever they may live. Whether it's Texas, New York, Florida, California, I think we have a heightened relevance across the country. Q. Can you talk a little bit about the higher amount of night games this year. MARK SILVERMAN: We have I believe seven prime time games this year. This again goes to what I mentioned earlier about the exclusivity provision being lifted. We are able to air games on the same night that ABC or ESPN was airing a prime time game. It's something that I believe will continue for the network. I believe Saturday night has become a feature place of wanting to have high-quality football on in the fall. I'm thrilled that the network I believe has the best prime time schedule yet this year and it's something I think will continue in future years. Q. Does the Big Ten Network have any interest at all in televising high school football games? MARK SILVERMAN: To date, the network has never aired any high school football. It's not in our current plans. We have a tremendous amount of content we put on the air. Actually last year we ended up televising over 600 live events. For the current time, it's not something we're looking at doing. Q. What kind of impact does that have on basketball? Will games be out of the exclusive window from CBS and ESPN? MARK SILVERMAN: That's something we're starting now. The basketball schedule is just starting to be looked at. I think it remains to be seen. However, I would expect there to be some additional overlap on basketball games this year as opposed to previous years. I don't think it's going to be significant where there will be games on at the same time on competing networks. I think there will be more overlapping games than there have been in the past. We'll know more in the next 30 to 60 days as to how that will play out. Q. Could you talk about the Big Ten hockey conference, specifically what that means for the network, what role the network had in the creation of that conference? MARK SILVERMAN: I can't really answer the second one. We were not involved in the decisions to launch -- I believe it was Penn State launching a hockey program that was the impetus to have an official conference for hockey. Our plans are still being developed. I know we're a few years away from there being a Big Ten hockey conference. Hockey is a great sport. I believe it's something the network can help promote and help grow, Big Ten and collegiate hockey beyond where it is today. I think we've shown from coverage of our other sports we can grow ratings, recruiting, attention nationally. It would be our plan to do the same thing with collegiate hockey. Once we have a Big Ten hockey conference, it would provide an opportunity for us to do more games than we've done in the past. The exact number obviously remains to be seen as scheduling and things like that all need to be taken care of. I think the six Big Ten schools will be able to see more of their games on the network as the result of having a Big Ten hockey conference. Q. Do you think it helps the Big Ten brand in having that continuity, adding a couple prestigious hockey programs on the Big Ten Network? MARK SILVERMAN: It helps the network for several reasons. First of all, hockey in Minnesota and Wisconsin is just incredibly popular. Hockey is one of those sports, in certain areas it's more popular than others. Obviously in Minnesota, Wisconsin, it's as popular as any sport there is. From that standpoint, it helps the network round out some programming, absolutely. The thing to remember in the winter is we have a tremendous amount of college basketball, women's basketball, wrestling and other sports that we're airing as well. It kind of just gets more and more difficult in a sense that you have so many events now. We only have one network to put on what we want to put on. It's always a challenge to try to represent hockey appropriately, wrestling, women's basketball, men's basketball. It's something that we always are looking to do a better job of in Chicago. I think we do a better and better job of it each year. Once the Big Ten hockey conference is established, I think we'll be at a point where we'll be able to put more hockey on the air. Q. I've been hazy on the structure of the Big Ten Network. It's a joint venture between the conference and the network. Break that down a little bit. MARK SILVERMAN: It's a joint venture between FOX and the conference. The network is established to represent the Big Ten brand as strongly as we can, but also it's a for-profit network that is geared for profit and future growth. The conference shares in the success of the network as we go forward and continue to grow. It's a really unique aspect out there. There's no other network out in the country that's a national network representing the conference to the level that we have, where we're complementing original content along with all these live events produced in HD with a lot of high-quality producers and talent representing the product on air. It's been a tremendous story how we've been able to grow and be successful and represent the conference in a really strong manner. All the schools and universities showcasing programs that would never have been on television before, adding additional coverage to programs that had been on television before. I think it's been really a great example of how these two entities with FOX and the conference united to form this network that I think is a great representation of both partners. Q. I know you have the alternate stations for football games. Would you ever consider using those for the basketball or the hockey games later on in the winter? MARK SILVERMAN: Those extra football channels are only available to us through our distributor during the football months. Once you get to NBA and NHL, typically you have many more events being televised nationally. You have local channels. There's a lot less ability to create channels, to just put them on the air, especially weekday nights when there's a lot more on the air. Saturday afternoons there's no competition really for other sports being played. There's more opportunity to create that bandwidth to create that. We have looked into it. For the foreseeable future, we've been told they're only going to be available for football in the fall. Q. You spoke about the success and the growth of the Big Ten Network itself. How do you think it's affected and changed college football in the last five years? MARK SILVERMAN: I'm a big believer in giving people what they want. I think we've started a movement to have more sports on television, more games on television. Fans want to watch their team's games. They either want to watch a team they have a connection to or a team that's highly ranked and nationally known. I think having more and more games on the air, if you look at a typical football Saturday versus five or ten years ago, it's a tremendously high number of games that are available now. To me it is a positive. I think you want to give various viewers the opportunities to watch the different games they want. By giving viewers more opportunities to watch the games they want, they become stronger fans. As you look at television going forward, ratings for broadcast and even a lot of the major cable networks are starting to fade as reality television and dramas all seem to be somewhat replaceable with each other. You're not going to be replacing your school's football or basketball games. They're just not like that. I think this kind of environment allows sports programming to show that connection it has with our viewers. I think for sportsfans, more options, more games to watch is a positive development for all of us. THE MODERATOR: That's all the time we have. Thank you very much. MARK SILVERMAN: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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