UConn unhappy over game on ESPNU |
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Wed, 31 Oct 2007 14:43
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STORRS, Conn. (AP) - Connecticut will play its first-ever game as a ranked team Saturday night against Rutgers, but many fans in Connecticut and New Jersey will not be able to watch.The game will be televised on ESPNU, a channel that is not carried by Comcast, a major cable provider with about 1.4 million customers in New Jersey and about 525,000 in Connecticut.UConn athletic director Jeff Hathaway said Tuesday he believes the network is using the game to leverage cable companies to add ESPNU.Burke Magnus, the vice president and general manager of ESPNU, called that assertion 'ridiculous.' He said the decision to put the game on ESPNU was made before UConn upset South Florida and jumped to No. 16 in The Associated Press Top 25 poll.'Our crystal ball works about as well as anyone else's,' he said. 'You can't look at one game in the landscape of all the games that we are doing on all of our networks and single it out as a mistake or some giant ploy against Comcast to leverage them into carrying ESPN. That's just not the way it works.'Magnus said negotiations with Comcast continue.ESPN and the Big East signed a six-year deal in 2006 giving the network the TV rights to carry football and men's and women's basketball. The contract, which begins next season, calls for a minimum of 17 Big East football games to be on ABC, ESPN and ESPN2 each year. The current contract calls for four games per year on ABC and 10 on ESPN or ESPN2.Big East commissioner Michael Tranghese said the league was aware of ESPNU's limited exposure when it signed the contract. He said the Big East and ESPN faced similar criticism years ago when they began putting Big East games on ESPN2, before most major cable companies carried that channel.ESPN and ABC are owned by The Walt Disney Co.Copyright 2007 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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