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It’s no secret that college football is big business and that a major contributing factor is revenue from television. The influential reach of that revenue is a hot debate in organizations that are supposed to put more ideal values above capitalistic ones — the two are not always at odds, though. So when a collegiate organization like the Big Ten Conference is motivated to expand, most would like to think it’s a school’s academic, or even athletic, merits that put said institution at the top of the want list. However, Dan Wetzel of Yahoo Sports believes the reason the Big Ten courted the University of Maryland and Rutgers University really just comes down to finding a way to sell an additional 14.6 million residents the Big Ten Network. The economics of sports networks on cable television is well documented — the majority pay so that the vocal minority may watch — but sculpting an amateur sports league to ensure your cable TV channel gets carriage in America’s largest media markets might be a new twist.

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Source: Yahoo Sports

Cal and Stanford fans away from home no longer have to huddle around their laptops if they want to learn who’s one-upping who. The Pac-12 Conference has just launched an iPad app for its authenticated Pac-12 Now service: as long as you’re with a TV provider that carries the college sports division’s games (sorry for now, DirecTV customers), you can tune into 850 live matches spread across a myriad of sports. As you’d hope, going the digital route allows for some on-demand viewing, a dedicated program guide and the social sharing you’ll want to rope friends into watching. Only Bright House, Cox and Time Warner Cable subscribers can use the iPad viewer at first, although support should come to BendBroadband, Comcast, Frontier and Suddenlink this fall, right alongside Android- and iPhone-sized apps. Hopefully, they arrive in time for a little ego padding around the Big Game in October.

Continue reading Pac-12 Conference streams come to iPad, fuel that Big Game rivalry on the road

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Pac-12 Conference streams come to iPad, fuel that Big Game rivalry on the road originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 31 Aug 2012 01:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This is it, the crossover where summer and fall programming mix. College football is back in action, and we say good bye to some of our favorite summer TV shows like Breaking Bad. TV fans should also keep an eye out on the disc releases, as many shows boxed sets are hitting shelves before the new season begin airing soon. Look below for the highlights this week, followed after the break by our weekly listing of what to look out for in TV, Blu-ray and videogames.

Breaking Bad
This weekend the first half of the fifth and final season of AMC’s Breaking Bad comes to a close, before viewers wait for the second half to air in summer 2013. You won’t find any spoilers here, but the path Walter White has taken has certainly arrived at places few would have predicted when the show began. The only question now is how many surprises are left before it all comes to an end.
(September 2, AMC, 10PM)

Doctor Who
Also fresh this weekend is a new series of Doctor Who episodes, kicking off with Asylum of the Daleks. The better news as of late has been BBC America closing the gap in airing new episodes and that DirecTV is carrying the channel in HD at last. If you can’t wait for new shows, check out the Pond Life preview clip embedded after the break.
(September 1, BBC America, 9PM)

College Football
While preseason week four of the NFL season is skippable pigskin action, the return of college football this weekend will have us planted firmly in front of our HDTVs. The Hawaii/USC and Michigan/Alabama matchups Saturday night should start the season off with a bang and we can’t wait. Looking for your favorite team in the listings? We’ve got many of the nationwide broadcasts covered, but reader Jose Perez reminds us of this comprehensive TV schedule at LSUFootball.net that should let you know who is playing where all season long.
(August 30th – September 1st)

Continue reading Must See HDTV (August 27th – September 2nd)

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Must See HDTV (August 27th – September 2nd) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Aug 2012 18:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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