Big Ten Network

About Big Ten Network

The Big Ten Network is a national television network in the United States launched on August 30, 2007. The network is a joint project of the Big Ten Conference, a collegiate athletic conference, and Fox Cable Networks and is a national channel devoted to Big Ten athletic and academic programs. It is headquartered in the former Montgomery Ward & Co. catalog building at 600 W. Chicago Ave in Chicago, Illinois. The Big Ten Network represents a 20-year partnership between the Big Ten and Newscorp. The Big Ten Network is majority-owned (51%) by the Big Ten Conference, with Fox holding a minority interest (49%). Fox will handle the administration and daily operations of the channel. The conference officially announced the formation of the network on June 21, 2006.

Mark Silverman is the first president of the network. He was formerly a general manager and senior vice president of ABC Cable Networks Group. Leon Schweir is the Big Ten Network's Executive Producer/Vice President of Production. He previously had spent 26 years working at Madison Square Garden Networks in New York City.

The network is planned to broadcast 35+ football games per season (including at least two per conference team), with 41 football games being broadcast on the network in 2007. For men's basketball, there will be at least 105 regular-season games and three Big Ten Tournament games, with 135 games being broadcast on the network in 2007. For women's basketball, there will be at least 55 regular-season games and nine Big Ten Tournament games. Also planned are 170 Olympic sporting events per year as well as 660 hours per year of institutional programming and coverage from the conference's vast library of historic sporting events, including bowl games. The network has a commitment to "event equality", reporting an intention to produce and distribute an equal number of men's and women's events by year three. Substantially all of its live events will be produced in High-Definition television (HDTV). The Big Ten Network claims it will produce more original High-Definition programming than any new network in television history.