In what can be deemed as nothing short of a brilliant marketing move, someone using the computers of Martin Waymire Communications (outed by Spartan Tailgate) has been posting to a number of Big Ten fan sites using the name “Victory4msu20.” Blogs and forums including Go Spartans.net (Scout), Wildcat Review have been hit with the following post:
Whats going on with the BTN?
I’m a MSU student and a big fan of Big 10 sports so I went to the Big 10 Network’s kick-off party in East Lansing last week. Big 10 Commissioner Jim Delaney was there telling everybody how great this new TV package is going to be for college football and b-ball fans. WHAT A CROCK! Delaney is like the emperor who wore no clothes…the BTC has already sold its best games to ABC and ESPN. How delusional is Delaney and these other Big 10 greedmongers who want to charge us for the games we’d be able to see for free on our local cable station? If you want to learn more about the Big 10’s big time rip off, I found a web site that explains a lot… www.puttingfansfirst.org
Putting Fans First truly carries the look and feel of the hardcore fan website, complete with stock photography of angry fans in generic school colors, news links and even a petition you can sign to let the Big Ten network know your anger.
Amazingly however, according to Michigan Sports Center, if you tune in to the the right channel on Comcast, you will see the following image:
Coincidence? I think not. Apparently, Martin Waymire Communications states that they receive support from Comcast.
Not to think that Comcast is the only one making a weak attempt at this sort of marketing, in late July, “Buckeyegirl45″ made the rounds at Buckeyes 247 and Killer Nuts posting such fan based gems as:
The BTN is not only good for all the sports that they will show, but also for the money that the network will generate for Big Ten schools. …..Some schools are already creating new facilities, scholastic programs, and restoring past programs that were sacrificed to budget cuts. So, the money that the BTN is requesting will not go solely to the network. They are not “greedy.”
BTN is one of the first of its kind services that include a central video channel, a full high-def channel, video on demand content, broadband, and mobile applications in its base price to distributors. Comparing it to lower costing, traditional video channels is illogical. The price for which the BTN is asking from the cable companies is so that operators purchasing the range of BTN services for one of the central eight states that make up the immediate Big Ten region will also be able to provide BTN into another five to six outlying state virtually free of addtional charge. …..
Not only will the schools financially benefit but they will also benefit in educational ways. There will be 600 hours of campus programming that will be run by students. Students will be offered internships to get hands on experience running a network. This will definitely help so many Big Ten students that will be able to use this education to find great jobs in the future.
All of this info can be found at bigtennetwork.com
I’m blaming Time Warner in this whole thing. …
Brings a tear to your eye doesn’t it.
I’ll say this for Buckeyegirl45, she at least spent the time to modify the press release for each site.
As I said before, both sides of this debate are wrong. This is about greed, greed and more greed and no matter what happens, the fans will lose out in the end.
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