Question on BTN Overflow Channels

1977Hawkeye

Well-Known Member
Monday night for the game against CMU that was televised on BTN, I was curious, so I decided to check what was on the overflow channels, if anything.. My service is with Verizon FIOS, and the main BTN channel is 85, and the overflow channels are 331, 332, etc.

I happened to notice that the Iowa game was also being televised on the 330's overflow channels as well..

My question: If the BTN does not use their overflow channels for basketball, then why was the Iowa game being aired on them?

Does the BTN have access to those overflow channels or not? If not, then I don't understand how it works with their overflow channels since the game was on them.

If the BTN does NOT have those channels for basketball games, I would have expected nothing to be on them.. What am I missing here?
 


Uhhhhh, don't know what to tell you. Wasn't at home Monday so I didn't really look at the overflow channels on AT&T. I know they use them during football season when they will have multiple games at the same time but I can't recall them being used at all during basketball season.
 




The Big Ten does not have access to the alternate channels for basketball. I have had a discussion with Mark Rudner on this. He said it is because the Big Ten is 1/2 owned by Fox and the BTN uses Fox's command center for satellite transmissions and too many are tied up with NBA and NHL to allow the BTN to use the alternate channels during basketball season. Obviously they allow this during football season as most of the season there are no conflicts with NBA/NHL. I think it's a pretty lame reason and one that should eventually get resolved, but for now that's the case.

My guess with your Fios service is Verizon simply is showing the game on both channels with the main BTN feed.
 


Must have been drugs or something but I could have sworn that during the first few years they showed several big ten conference games on the over flow channels. I had Dish TV at the time.
 




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