# apparent violation by BTN of NCAA Live Video Streaming Rights Policy



## Jimmmm (Nov 7, 2007)

I believe that the Big Ten Network (BTN) is in clear violation of the NCAA Championships Live Video Streaming Rights Policy listed online at the ncaa.com Web site.

Specifically, Paragraph 6 of Live Video Streaming of NCAA Championships – Terms and Conditions states:

"6. Free-to-User: The Streaming Entity agrees to deliver the live video stream of the Event Coverage FREE to all users. The Streaming Entity further agrees that no video streaming rights shall be granted or will be permitted as part of a subscription package. If the Streaming Entity normally uses a subscription package to broadcast video streams, the link to the stream of the Event Coverage must be separate from the subscription package and may not require any login or other user information."

It is my understanding that the Big Ten purchased the rights to certain women's volleyball playoff matches from the NCAA -- an example is last night's match tonight between Central Michigan and Illinois. The Big Ten, rather than televising the match or providing it on the Big Ten Digital Network or fightingillini.com , chose to stream it using their btn2go service. The problem is that this requires the user to be a subscriber to one of six providers: Bright House, Charter, Cox, Directv, Dish, or Time Warner Cable.

I, for example, am a subscriber to BTN but receive BTN through Comcast. There has been no way provided for me to view the streamed match, despite several inquiries I have made both to fightingillini.com and to BTN.

I have contacted the NCAA, asking them to stop BTN (specifically, btn2go) from violating the terms of Paragraph 6 of the Live Video Streaming Rights Policy, and to let me know how I (and others in my situation) might view the streams of future NCAA tournament events hosted by Big Ten teams.


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## Jimmmm (Nov 7, 2007)

I received a reply today from the cognizant official at ncaa.com / Turner Sports:

"Jim

Just heard from the requestor and there's no way for them to stop authentication without redoing their website apparently. Not that it helps for now but I have a call scheduled with them during the coming week to discuss this issue."

I replied as follows (Cc-ing several individuals associated with the Big Ten, with BTN, with the NCAA, and with Comcast):

Thanks for your reply. BTN already has the Big Ten Digital Network (BTDN) to use for streaming live events, and it has always been set up in the past that streams for NCAA tournament events were free using BTDN (or its predecessor platforms).

***** Would you please ask BTN *additionally* to stream tonight's matches using BTDN? I'm confident that there's plenty of time remaining today to arrange this. *****

This is an unabashed effort by BTN to push providers to adopt btn2go. But, in doing so, they have clearly violated the NCAA Live Video Streaming Rights Policy. I hope that this will be corrected before any violations take place for future NCAA events.


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## Jimmmm (Nov 7, 2007)

The Big Ten has relented! At about 3 PM today (Sat. 12/3) I received the following message from Michael Calderon, Vice President, Digital & Interactive Media, BTN:

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Jim,

To be clear, BTN is not violating any NCAA policy. We were very clear of our intentions to place these streams exclusively on BTN2Go when we made our bid for rights to Turner and the NCAA, which was approved.

Also, to be clear, BTN has never in the past streamed any NCAA tournament events due to the requirement that these streams live outside of a subscription product.

The existence of BTN2Go allows BTN to bid for these non televised NCAA games and place them on a new digital platform. BTN2Go is available to all BTN cable and satellite affiliates, and many have agreed to offer the service to their subscribers at no additional charge. I hope you communicated to Comcast your desire to have access to BTN2Go as persistently as you communicated your displeasure to the NCAA, Turner, Illinois, the Big Ten Conference and the Big Ten Network.

All that being said, we will be making tonight's volleyball streams available for free at http://video.btn.com as we continue to work with the NCAA and Turner to find a solution that works for everyone moving forward and allow these events that would otherwise be untelevised to be produced and distributed.

Thank you,
Michael Calderon

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Following is the reply that I sent. I can't be sure, of course, but I can guess that it expresses sentiments that many of us have had at one time or another in similar situations (I'm looking at you, "ESPN family of networks"):

Dear Mr. Calderon:

Thanks very much for your highly informative reply. Also, I am very grateful that you have chosen to make tonight's volleyball streams available for free at http://video.btn.com. (They aren't listed there yet, but I presume they will be by the time the events begin.)

You are right that I rather persistently communicated my displeasure to the NCAA, Turner, Illinois, the Big Ten Conference, and the Big Ten Network. Please note that I am an alumnus of the University of Illinois, and that all my previous dealings with the University of Illinois and its athletics department have been very pleasant. I am also a cable subscriber to the Big Ten Network through Comcast (note: because I live in Baltimore, and not in the Big Ten's "footprint", I need to pay extra for this by subscribing to a Comcast sports package), and I am also a subscriber to the on-line Big Ten Digital Network (more precisely, to the All Access package that includes BTDN).

Allow me, please, to express my displeasure (and the displeasure of many fans such as myself) one more time, as follows. In the past, I have always been able to watch NCAA tournament events such as women's volleyball matches that were hosted by the University of Illinois free of charge, because the University of Illinois streamed such events free of charge through fightingillini.com . This fall I have followed the University of Illinois volleyball team faithfully, both on BTN (linear network, via live telecasts and occasional Student U productions) and on BTDN. Tournament time arrives and suddenly I (and many disappointed fans such as myself) find that BTN has chosen this crescendo to the season as an opportunity to ignore BTN and BTDN and the paying subscribers to both and instead use the fans' disappointment at being unable to watch the matches in a blatantly cynical and off-putting attempt to put pressure on providers to sign up (and pay up) for btn2go.

If you had not provided the very pleasant surprise of making tonight's streams available for free (and, again, please note that I am very grateful for that), I might have been so put off by the anti-public relations (or is that public anti-relations?) of exploiting the tournament to push adoption of btn2go that I might well have stopped speaking positively of BTN and its programming to my friends and others with whom I communicate on on-line sports-broadcasting message boards.

P.S. You wrote that you "continue to work with the NCAA and Turner to find a solution that works for everyone moving forward and allow these events that would otherwise be untelevised to be produced and distributed." It is true that the events would otherwise be "untelevised", but one cannot reasonably regard streaming on btn2go as "televising" the event -- because otherwise the events would not be "untelevised": they would be streamed (as in the past) on fightingillini.com and on All Access. [Or, before the -- presumably highly lucrative -- btn2go platform was dreamed up, one might have hoped (might one still?) to see at least some of these matches on the linear network on Student U.]


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