Purdue football training camp featured on BTN; Comcast dispute with network ramps up Current deal with cable company expires at end of August

Mike Carmin | Journal & Courier

CHICAGO — Purdue's football program will receive plenty of exposure from BTN leading up to the season opener, and it goes beyond the games.

BTN president Mark Silverman announced Tuesday that the network will feature the Boilermakers during this year's training camp. Gold and Black Days — an inside look inside Purdue's training camp — will debut Aug. 14 and run for four weeks up until the season's first week.

Silverman made the announcement at Tuesday's Big Ten Media Day.

The Journey and a new season of Campus Easts will return along with another edition of Big Ten Elite Series focusing on the 1997 Nebraska team.

BTN/Comcast dispute

The 10-year agreement ends in August, and the cable company is currently taking a hard-line stance with the network.

Earlier this spring, Comcast removed BTN from out of market cable systems — those outside of the Big Ten footprint. Silverman said Tuesday he immediately reached out to Comcast to keep the network on the air.

"Comcast was intent on dropping BTN and refused to listen to our plea," Silverman said during his press conference. "Unlike the usual scenario in these carriage disputes, there is no economic benefit to Comcast at all to do this and remove BTN from their systems outside the Big Ten area, which begs the question: 'Why did they do this?' "

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Silverman said Comcast systems are the primary cable provider within the Big Ten footprint and is the leading provider in 10 of the 14 markets where conference schools reside.

"Unfortunately, my fear is the removal of BTN in the outer market may just be the first step in Comcast's plan to remove BTN from their systems everywhere, including the Big Ten home markets," Silverman said.

He added that the agreement for all Big Ten games that air on FS1 is about to expire.

"BTN and FS1 have made a proposal to Comcast dating back to February, and we've had no substantive response at all," Silverman said. "As a result, we believe BTN and those Big Ten games that are on FS1 are in danger of not being carried on Comcast this coming season."

BTN has established a website — keepbtn.com — to educate consumers about the dispute.

Purdue has two games scheduled on BTN so far this season — Sept. 8 against Eastern Michigan and Sept. 15 against Missouri — with more to come. As of now, the Boilermakers aren't scheduled to play on FS1 but that likely will change.

BTN and FS1 are expected to televise approximately 60 games this year, nearly two-thirds of all the games in the Big Ten.