Tonight, Big Ten Network (BTN) kicks off its seventh season of college football. In that short time, the network has grown from an outlet in its infancy struggling with carriage and distribution to serving as the gold standard of college sports television.
BTN will produce 28 Big Ten football games in the first five weeks of the season alone, and behind the logistics of it all is Mark Hulsey, VP, production/executive producer.
Hulsey's career has included stops in Denver, where he was director of broadcasting for the Colorado Avalanche and the Denver Nuggets, and at Fox Sports Midwest, where he oversaw St. Louis Cardinals and St. Louis Blues telecasts.
Hulsey joined the Big Ten Network in July 2009, and, under his direction, it has produced more than 400 live events and more than 250 hours of studio programming annually. He also heads the network's successful Student U program, which streams more than 300 live Olympic-sport contests.
Sitting down with SVG, Hulsey spoke about what makes BTN so successful, the differences between working in pro and college sports, and how the network is preparing to welcome two new universities into the mix next summer.
How'd you spend your summer? Is there even an offseason in the college sports world anymore?
The offseason is dictated by the fact that you can leave at 6 p.m. every night rather than 10 p.m. every night.
We do have some advantages, though, where we have a little bit of time to plan in the summer. The schedule is not as taxing as it is during the regular production year. So it gives us some time for evaluating talent and evaluating our equipment.
It was an enjoyable summer. We're also already planning for expansion in 2014 with Rutgers and Maryland.
There are many new and proposed college networks: Pac-12, SEC, a possible ACC network. What, in your opinion, is it about BTN that makes it the benchmark that many of these new networks are being measured against?
It helped that we were first, without question. Our goal is to be the best college sports television network possible in everything we do and to improve our product every year. There are advantages to being first, and the fact that we've done it successfully is a tribute to our staff, to the conference, and to our partners at Fox. We don't rest on our laurels. Every year, we constantly ask ourselves, How can we get better?
You've worked for sports franchises and regional sports networks in the past. What are some of the biggest differences that come with operating a college conference network?
Without question, the passion of our viewers is different in college versus the professional ranks. I was fortunate at my last job at Fox to oversee the telecast of the St. Louis Cardinals, a traditionally strong pro product that has a great history in this market. Those fan bases are incredibly passionate and loyal, but there's just something unique about college sports fans. The emotional attachment they have to these games and to these schools puts more pressure - and I think it's good pressure - on us to produce a better product. If something happens on a college football telecast, the passion of our viewers is quickly evident. We hear about it. But I think that's good; I think that puts us on our game and makes us realize that a graphical error or a slip-up by one of our announcers' not understanding a statistical reference or a historical fact, that's not tolerated. That makes us better, believe me.
In what ways has the relationship between the network and the Big Ten schools changed or grown in the time since you joined the network?
The camaraderie and the working relationship that the network has with the schools has strengthened every year. I think they fully understand what they have in this network, that we're here for them. The support that we've received since day 1 has been terrific, but I've seen clearly, in my short time here, how that's improved every year.
And that's in all sports. Not just football or men's basketball but all of the sports. The amount of exposure that we give to the Olympic sports has been appreciated by everybody. I can say our relationships with the schools could not be better.
Have you begun working with the staffs at Rutgers and Maryland? And what will you do throughout this academic year to help prepare technologically for those schools' joining the fold next summer?
I and our engineering team traveled to Rutgers and Maryland last February to get an initial look at all of the campuses and get a better understanding of the venues. Last month, our executive team also traveled to those campuses to get a better handle on both campuses and all the work that needs to be done.
I can assure you that both Maryland and Rutgers are going to do everything possible to make sure that we have a successful launch. Both campuses are a little different. Rutgers is a little more spread out than Maryland so that might provide a few more challenges, but we have time to work on it. [Nebraska was a very successful launch, and] I'm confident that we'll see the same with Maryland and Rutgers.
In your opinion, what's the next frontier for BTN? Where can the network go next?
When you look at what we've done with BTN2GO, our original programming, and our studio shows, I think its steady growth year-to-year is what's important to us. Again, it goes back to my early statement about getting better each year. If we always maintain the goal of being the best college sports network on television, that's well within reach, and that's a great goal to have.
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
Tonight, Big Ten Network (BTN) kicks off its seventh season of college football. In that short time, the network has grown from an outlet in its infancy struggling with carriage and distribution to serving as the gold standard of college sports television.
