Fox, Big Ten made a big bet on TV future; it paid off with huge contract | Opinion
The Big Ten’s big bet paid off Thursday.
Fifteen years ago, when the conference first formed the Big Ten Network through a joint venture with Fox, the Big Ten was told it was embarking on a fool’s errand. Not enough people would want that much league-centric broadcast content, and what consumers would want, the Big Ten would pay for siphoning off traditional partners, most notably ESPN.