The new Big 12 digital network now has a name and it's one West Virginia fans will need to get familiar with in a hurry.
The network, which began this fall for some of the teams in the conference and technically in 2020 for West Virginia, will be referred to as Big 12 Now on ESPN+. The platform will be combined with the first tier inventory already on ESPN and Fox and be available for those to stream select games on various devices.
But while West Virginia won't be featured on the network until next year, the Mountaineers will have their first exposure to it with the 4:30 p.m. match up with Kansas selected for the service. That means in order to watch the game, you'll need to sign up for ESPN+ via ESPN.com or through a secondary service such as Hulu, Roku or AppleTV.
The service costs $4.99 per month and is available through Apple TV, Android devices, Roku, ChromeCast, FireTV as well as several gaming devices and various other avenues. It also provides fans the opportunity to watch games from anywhere.
“This is going to be omnipresent. It’s available 24/7, 365 worldwide,” said Bob Bowlsby, commissioner of the Big 12 Conference. “It doesn’t diminish our reliance on ESPN and Fox as our partners with our tier 1 consumption, but all of our sports will be available on ESPN+.”
In the future, the expectation is that West Virginia will be providing their tier 3 content, which was previously aired on AT&T SportsNet, to the network after this upcoming season.
The content will boil down to roughly one football game, typically the FCS opponent, and a select number of men’s basketball games as well as other sports. Although as recent developments have shown that could be subject to change.
The recently released West Virginia basketball schedule also shows that five games are to be featured from the conference slate including both games with Kansas this year. The full list is Jan. 4 @Kansas, Jan. 29 @ Texas Tech, Feb. 12 Kansas, Feb. 15 @ Baylor and March 7 Baylor to be aired on the service.
That goal of the network is to provide more coverage for all sports at the schools within the Big 12 footprint especially those outside of football and men’s basketball. The streaming service will air live games, as well as replays.
The network was created with a Big 12 landing page that is menu driven and when fully operational is scheduled to carry over 800 conference events featured on the service.
It’s a stark contrast to what Bowlsby said when overlooking the adjustments of the Big Ten Network and Pac 12 Network when he worked for those conferences.
“The first year of the Big Ten Network you couldn’t get Ohio State football in Central Ohio and believe me there were a few angry people when they called and said we can’t get this and you need to fix our problem and the answer was we can’t fix your problem,” he said. “You need to talk to your cable carrier. This technology is up and running. It’s easy to subscribe to and it’s cutting edge.”
The move is anticipatory of what tomorrow’s technology environment could look like with a streaming platform. While cable is obviously not going away, the goal of this was to not only find that future element for consumption but to also align schools with their tier 3 rights.
Only Oklahoma, who has an existing contract with Fox for several more years, and Texas, who has the Longhorn Network, will not be included by the start of the 2020 season. However, those teams can and will likely be featured on the network as a road team moving forward.
“Part of the process is aligning and putting ourselves in position for the future environment,” Bowlsby said.
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