Big Ten Network officially launches Aug. 30

The new
Big Ten Network officially launches in prime time at 7 p.m. Central Time on
Thursday, Aug. 30, with the evening also marking the inaugural telecast of Big
Ten Tonight, the network’s signature studio-based news, information and highlight
show.

The announcement was made today by Big Ten Network President Mark Silverman. In
addition, the network today achieved distribution commitments for more than 75
local cable systems serving communities in the eight states where Big Ten
institutions are located. These commitments, which demonstrate the network’s
broad appeal, account for hundreds of thousands of cable subscribers spanning

Illinois,

Indiana,

Iowa,

Michigan,

Minnesota,

Ohio,

Pennsylvania and

Wisconsin,
all of whom will receive Big Ten Network on an expanded basic level of service.

The official launch comes two days before the kick-off of the 2007 Big Ten
college football season. Big Ten Tonight, hosted by Dave Revsine, will
preview the upcoming season and closely examine all of the weekend’s conference
teams in action. Big Ten Network’s first-ever game coverage begins at 11
a.m. Central Time Sept. 1, with regional coverage of Appalachian State at

Michigan;

Youngstown

State visiting BCS championship
runner-up

Ohio

State;
Florida International at

Penn

State; and

Northeastern

University
at Northwestern. In prime time, the network will air

Bowling
Green at

Minnesota and

Indiana

State
at

Indiana.
Most of these football games, and the vast majority of Big Ten Network football
throughout the season, will be produced in state-of the-art high definition
(HD). All games will be made available to distributors who carry the network so
that fans everywhere can see the games that matter to them most.

“With these commitments, we’re well on our way toward ensuring that
roughly half the subscribers to smaller cable systems across the

Midwest have better access to their favorite Big Ten
schools and teams than anytime in history,” Silverman said. “As we
continue discussions with the largest national cable system operators, we’re
pleased to know that so many of these Midwestern communities will have the
network available to them on expanded basic.”

Big Ten Commissioner James E. Delany agreed. “The Big Ten is more
than a series of isolated athletic events. It’s a collection of premier
institutions and devotion to excellence that unites this entire region,”
he said. “Big Ten Network reflects those values, and we appreciate these
community-based cable systems’ shared commitment to the network.”

Some of the local systems planning to carry Big Ten Network as part of their
expanded basic level of service include Altatec Alta Municipal Utility, Cedar
Falls Utilities, Celect Communications, Consolidated Communications Network
Services, City of Wadsworth Cable TV, Dixon Telephone Company, Grundy Center
Municipal, Harlan Municipal Utilities, Hiawatha Broadband, Horizon Telecom,
Independence Communications, Iowa Network Services, Mid-Century Communications,
Moultrie Telecommunications, Muscatine Power & Water, Oneida Cablevision,
Spencer Municipal Utilities, The Community Agency and USA Communications. In
addition, Big Ten Network has national distribution agreements with DirectTV
and the new AT&T U-verseSM service, as well as a major regional agreement
with Buckeye Cable.

In addition to its 24-hour standard and high-definition television (HDTV)
channels, the Big Ten Network will also offer distributors a dynamic
video-on-demand programming service and a rich broadband video package for
their high-speed Internet customers. All of these offerings are available
at a combined fee that is two-thirds less than what Comcast charges for Comcast
SportsNet Chicago and Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia.

Big Ten Network will produce the Big Ten Tonight nightly studio show and more
live events (and more women’s athletics events) in HD than any other new
network in television history. Big Ten Network recently announced a commitment
to gender equality by 2010, when all Big Ten Network-controlled television,
Internet and mobile media will provide equal men’s and women’s athletic
coverage.

The Big Ten Conference is the majority owner of Big Ten Network, with its
proceeds divided equally among the 11 conference member universities. These
proceeds will assist Big Ten Conference member institutions in operating their
respective athletic programs in a self-sustaining manner, without university
subsidy or allocation of state funding, enabling additional revenue to flow to
research, the arts and other scholastic endeavors.

Shortly after its Aug. 30 premiere, and throughout the new 2007-2008 academic
year, Big Ten Network will begin working with Big Ten institutions to become
part of the curriculum and incorporate student production from Big Ten
Network-sponsored campus facilities into its core operations. Big Ten Network
and its partners have similarly committed to professional internships for Big
Ten students and career placement services in their own major media operations.