Iowa fans will have another option to watch the black and gold this winter, on Tuesday FloWrestling and FloHockey announced new partnerships with BTN Plus to air over 150 events on the independent subscription service.
We got more details of the deal today, with the Big Ten Network putting out a press release and in speaking with Michael Calderon, Senior Vice President of Programming and Digital Media.
“It’s an opportunity for BTN to partner with FloSports to provide additional exposure for more than 1000 events that we do every year on BTN Plus,” Caledron said via phone interview. “We really market our products more to fans of schools, and Flo really markets their products to fans of sports. It’s a really nice opportunity to get Big Ten content and events in front of new audiences.”
“We’re excited to partner with the Big Ten Network, as they bring incredible student-athletes and events to our die-hard community of sports fans,” FloSports co-founder and CEO Martin Floreani said. “We look forward to building up these event properties to bring more value to the events, athletes, and fans.”
Iowa has eight duals scheduled to be broadcast on BTN Plus this season, including their first competition of the year – the Iowa City Duals on November 17th. The other duals schedule for internet-only broadcast are at home versus Illinois, at Rutgers and Maryland, and at home vs Northwestern and Michigan State.
The partnership between BTN and Flo applies only to non-televised games. If the contest is not televised live it does not apply to the new agreement.
The deal not only applies to wrestling, but to all sports contests that are scheduled for broadcast on BTN Plus.
“Even if they (Flo) doesn’t have a vertical for a sport that we might deliver, water polo or what have you, it will be available [on Flo].”
FloSports will stream the same broadcast that currently streams on BTN Plus. There may be an opportunity for Flo to broadcast events that would not have been selected for broadcast on BTN Plus.
For current BTN Plus subscribers, there will not be any changes nor will FloSports have any exclusive rights to broadcasts for most athletic events.
All in all the deal could work out for Iowa and BTN fans who subscribe to both services.