CHICAGO – With basketball season around the corner, BTN will cover the nation’s best basketball conference like no other network, with live coverage of media day, season-long pregame and postgame shows and studio and original programs, including the return of BTN’s Emmy-Nominated original series, The Journey: Big Ten Basketball 2014.
On Thursday, BTN will provide live television and streamed coverage of the Big Ten’s 2013 Basketball Media Day. For the first time, BTN and BTN2Go will provide live coverage of the men’s coaches’ press conferences, while both the men’s and women’s coaches’ press conferences will be streamed live, free of charge, on BTN.com via the Big Ten Digital Network (BTDN). Mike Hallwill be in-studio hosting the day’s coverage beginning at 9 AM ET.
BTN studio and original programs returning January 2014 include:
· Big Ten Basketball Report – Airing Thursday evenings with hosts Hall and analysts Stephen Bardo, Shon Morris and Dick Weiss, former longtime New York Daily News sports columnist and member of the College Basketball Writers’ Hall of Fame, who joins BTN analysts this season.
- · Big Ten Basketball & Beyond – Airing Sunday nights with host Dave Revsine and analysts Jim Jackson and the Sporting News’Mike DeCourcy.
- · #BTNLive – Airing Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and also simulcast Monday through Friday on FOX Sports Radio with hosts Revsine, Pizzo and Hall and a rotating slate of analysts.
- · The Journey: Big Ten Basketball 2014 – Airing Sundays and debuting on Jan. 12, 2014
BTN will televise 67 men’s conference basketball matchups this season, including four Big Ten Tournament games and an additional number of non-conference games. BTN’s “Super Wednesday” lineup, sponsored by Buffalo Wild Wings, will feature key matchups all season long. In addition, the network will have games on Tuesdays and Thursdays, presented by Quicken Loans, and frequent doubleheaders on Saturdays and Sundays. Additionally, The Big Ten Tip-Off Show airs game days on Wednesdays and Saturdays and The Big Ten Finale airs on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays during the season.
BTN will air 43 conference, six non-conference and 10 Big Ten Women’s Basketball Tournament games this season. The women’s basketball season will tip off at Noon ET on Nov. 17 with defending Big Ten Champion Penn State hosting eight-time NCAA Champion Connecticut. The Big Ten Women’s Sports Report airs before games on Thursdays during conference play.
About BTN: A joint venture between the Big Ten Conference and Fox Networks, BTN is the first internationally distributed network dedicated to covering one of the premier collegiate conferences in the country. With more than 800 events, all in HD, the 24/7 network is the ultimate destination for Big Ten fans and alumni across the country, allowing them to see their favorite teams, regardless of where they live. BTN2Go is the 24/7 simulcast of BTN that delivers live and on-demand programming via the internet, smartphones and tablets to customers of participating video providers. Events include football, men’s and women’s basketball games; dozens of Big Ten Olympic sports and championship events; studio shows; and classic games. The network televises and streams more Olympic sporting events and women’s sports than has ever been aired on any other network. Original programming highlights activities and accomplishments of some of the nation’s finest universities. The groundbreaking Student U initiative provides real-world experience for students interested in careers in sports television. The network is in more than 52 million homes across the United States and Canada, including carriage by all the major video distributors, such as DIRECTV, DISH, Verizon FiOS, AT&T U-Verse, Charter Communications, Comcast Xfinity, Time Warner Cable, Cablevision, Cox Communications, Mediacom, RCN, WOW!, Rogers Cable, Shaw and Shaw Direct (Canada) and approximately 300 additional video providers across North America. For additional information, go to www.BTN.com.