Canzano: Peek behind the Big Ten Network curtain
Is the network ready for Oregon, Washington, UCLA, and USC?
We’re less than seven weeks away from the official expansion of the Big Ten Conference to 18 teams. The conference’s network is hiring employees to cover the four new schools, visiting stadiums, investing in on-campus production, and finalizing coverage plans for the 2024 football season.
François McGillicuddy, the president of the Big Ten Network, engaged in a 1-on-1 conversation about conference expansion, coverage expectations, and how adding Oregon, Washington, UCLA, and USC will impact the network’s programming.
Has the Big Ten Network hired Pac-12 Network employees? Will students on the four new campuses get hands-on TV experience? What are the challenges of producing live sports content two time zones away from the home office?
My Q-and-A with McGillicuddy:
How is the Big Ten Network going to set up shop in these added outposts (USC, UCLA, Oregon, Washington) so that those schools will get the kind of coverage that other members of the Big Ten are getting?
François McGillicuddy: Since last year at UCLA and USC, and more recently with Oregon and Washington, we have been visiting all four campuses, developing production plans, hiring staff, and producing programming.
This spring, our team talked so much about the 2024-25 season that we were often reminding each other not to forget about the season in progress. Come Aug. 2, we will be set up to provide — at minimum — commensurate coverage of Oregon, UCLA, USC, and Washington, just as we would with our 14 current Big Ten schools.
Going through the expansion process, our team’s primary goal has been working to ensure the network can be the home of those four schools from the day they officially join. As you would imagine, that has entailed hiring full-time staff who reside on the West Coast. We now have five full-time employees in Los Angeles, several of which joined the company last year, and four full-time employees in the Pacific Northwest (soon to be five). As a part of that, each campus will also have a dedicated, full-time on-campus producer/editor whose sole job is to generate video content from the institution’s athletic programs.
That involves infrastructure on campuses. Was there an investment from the schools on that front? Minimum requirements for studio, equipment, etc.?
When it comes to campus productions, we like to say there is not a one-size-fits-all approach. Given different athletic department staffing levels, existing workflows, and infrastructure, the control rooms, studios, and video departments look different across all 18 Big Ten schools. That said, Oregon, UCLA, USC, and Washington have all invested in an effort to create the best possible partnership with the network.
There is also an investment from our side, and we collaborate with each campus to help fulfill equipment needs. From my perspective, it’s less about a minimum requirement than it is a minimum capability. We want to make sure Big Ten Network, and the other Big Ten media partners, can produce quality events from every campus and it is our job to facilitate that.
Will the Big Ten Network or the new members contract with Pac-12 Enterprises on the production needs?
With the production capabilities of our joint venture partner in FOX Sports, in addition to our experience with remote productions and a 15-year history of running events out of centralized control rooms, we don’t currently foresee any additional needs.
Will there be opportunities for students at schools such as Oregon and Washington to get involved and participate with student-produced content?
Absolutely. I previously mentioned the joint venture nature of our business, and our other partner is the Big Ten Conference. Given their mission, we prioritize opportunities for students. Big Ten Network’s Student U program, the driving force behind Big Ten Olympic sports coverage, is projected to produce 2,000 streamed events on B1G+ next year and involves more than 500 students gaining professional media experience.
All four schools are currently in the process of developing and staffing those programs and will be up and running by August. BTN N.O.W. serves as an extension of Student U and recognizes top performers with additional career development, including a six-week workshop in our Chicago studios.
I’m proud to say that we have 30 current employees who went through that workshop, and this year we will have a participant from both Oregon and Washington. We also have a broadcast seminar for student-athletes who have exhausted their eligibility and are interested in a career in media, which will include seven former student-athletes from the four new schools. Last but not least, I want to point out the brand ambassador program (those jobs are currently posted) for current students, which is run by our marketing team. That role focuses less on television production and more on the promotional aspect of our business.
What are the challenges of producing football and basketball broadcasts from sites that are two time zones away from the home office?
Our group has spent a lot of time on this topic, and we are of the mindset that there will be far more opportunities than challenges. That is not to say there will not be any obstacles or issues, live TV always seems to find a way to present those, but we’re invigorated by the idea of providing compelling, prime-time programming on the West Coast.
With that in mind, we have increased our staffing across the board and are evaluating how new broadcast windows enhance the programming schedule, particularly around post-game shows. Regarding live events, we’ve spent quite a bit of time visiting the venues and ensuring we are ready to go.
Football is top of mind, and when we think about a truck show from Eugene or Seattle, where we will be in week one, the workflow won’t be any different than it would be from Iowa City or State College.
Does the Big Ten Network plan to hire former Pac-12 Network staffers to be on-air? Will it need local staff in Eugene and Seattle?
We do, although the on-air portion will likely not be announced officially until later in July. The Pac-12 Network had incredibly talented people both on-air and behind-the-scenes, and we have been fortunate to add some of those folks. It gets back to our goal of immediately representing all four schools and their fan bases.
As it relates to the Big Ten, no one should know those schools better than the Big Ten Network. The conference is now at 18 schools, versus 11 when the network launched, and admittedly there is a lot more knowledge required. Adding staff with an immediate and expert sense of programs, traditions, and rivalries is a must for us.
In June your network is airing “School Days” featuring the current members of the Big Ten. What kind of programming does the Big Ten Network have planned for when the four new schools officially cross over and join the conference?
Things will get started in earnest at Big Ten Football Media Days (July 23-25) with studio and digital coverage, but on the official join date (Aug. 2) we will start to ramp up our programming. We have four “welcome” shows debuting to feature each school, Big Ten Volleyball Media Days Aug. 5-6, and the rights to more than 65 classic games edited into one-hour programs — a number which will continue to increase.
We’re also looking forward to introducing school-specific episodes of The B1G Moment and B1G Trailblazers, which highlight iconic games and individuals. B1G Trailblazers will focus on Ann Meyers Drysdale, Lizette Salas, Tinker Hatfield, and Detlef Schrempf, while The B1G Moment will feature Tyus Edney’s buzzer-beater, the 1987 USC football win over UCLA, Oregon’s 2017 women’s track Triple Crown and Isaiah Thomas’ championship game buzzer beater in 2011.
Campus Eats will visit local bars, restaurants, and bakeries, and our summer football camp tour, which begins in early August, will include Oregon, UCLA, USC, and Washington. We will certainly look forward to adding school days for each of those institutions next summer.
What presence should Olympic sports expect to have on the Big Ten Network moving forward?
In short, a large one. We’re projected to produce more than 600 linear television events this upcoming year, and somewhere between 50-60 percent of that inventory will feature Olympic sports. Last year, we set network all-time single-event viewership records in women’s volleyball, women’s soccer, and women’s gymnastics, so the prospect of adding the caliber of Olympic programs we see at these schools has tremendous appeal.
At the same time, this will be an area of change for fans. Because we offer a single linear network, with finite broadcast windows and 18 schools to cover, B1G+ acts as a complementary streaming platform and is home to a sizeable amount of Olympic sports coverage. On that note, we are planning to work with schools and their fan bases in this first year to sample the B1G+ product at either complimentary or deeply discounted rates.
The Big Ten Network isn’t available as part of the basic tier package with some of the cable providers… is there anything the network controls on that front?
Fortunately, many pay-TV providers already carry Big Ten Network on their basic level of service. For those who are not already doing so, we expect them to make Big Ten Network more broadly available in the next couple of months. I would encourage any fans or viewers with questions to call their provider and inquire about what package/level of service Big Ten Network will be on in their area.
(*Note to readers: I contacted Comcast corporate to ask how viewers in the Pacific Northwest might get the Big Ten Network. A spokesperson for the company told me the network is currently offered on the “More Sports and Entertainment” tier and can be added to the Xfinity Popular plan for an additional $10 per month. The Xfinity Popular Package is $60 per month.
“Not only does the Big Ten Network cover college football for Oregon and Washington,” the Comcast spokesperson told me, “but it also includes NFL Network, FanDuel TV, ESPN News, CBS Sports Network, NBA TV, NFL RedZone, NHL Network, MLB Network, Pac-12 Mountain, CMT, TCM, and FM.”
It should also be noted that the Pac-12 Mountain signal goes dark at midnight on June 30.)
I wish I did not feel this way, but my interest in the schools who help destroy the Pac 12 has pretty much disappeared. The regional rivalries in the Pac is what made it so enjoyable. I hope that OSU and WSU can survive this debacle.
Wow! Nice job John! It won't surprise me if the complexity that's being added proves difficult to manage well. Your interview also also highlighted, for me at least, how devastating the realignment has been for OSU and WSU. Once vibrant and equal partners in a top drawer conference now relagated to trying to regain respect participating at a second tier level. There is someting fundamentally and seriously wrong.