BTN and Comcast near agreement

The Big Ten Network and Comcast may be close to a deal that would return University of Minnesota sports broadcasts to Twin Cities cable subscribers, SportsBusiness Journal is reporting. The Big Ten Network launched last August as part of a cooperative effort between the Big Ten Conference and Fox Sports Networks.

Controversy has surrounded the start-up network from the beginning as a drawn out disagreement over carriage rights with cable providers like Comcast left many college sports fans in the dark. Most of this season’s Gophers men’s and women’s hockey, basketball and volleyball games were only available to a fraction of Minnesota residents.