In the vast universe of cable TV programming, the Big Ten Network is just one channel, and a new one that has yet to prove itself. The college sports network based in Chicago doesn't even launch until Thursday night, but it's becoming a major chess piece in the emerging TV battle between telcos and cable companies. Comcast declined to carry the network as a standard channel, preferring instead to put it in a separately priced sports tier.
AT&T agreed to make the BTN part of its standard U-verse line-up. To some degree, this is mostly a sharp publicity move by new TV player AT&T. But perhaps now that telcoTV is becoming more widely available, we'll see more of this hustling as telcos look to cast their offerings as richer, more flexible alternatives to what you'll get from the cable guy.
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