University students will not be able to watch many Illinois football and basketball games on television this year unless they have DirecTV, AT&T; U-verse or certain smaller cable providers.

Some large cable companies, including Comcast, have not yet agreed to make the Big Ten Network available on expanded basic cable, said Ron Guenther, athletic director, in a recent letter to Fighting Illini fans.

The Big Ten Network, the national cable and satellite programming service dedicated to covering University and other Big Ten Conference events, launches today. The Chicago-based network is a joint 20-year endeavor between the Big Ten Conference and Fox Cable Networks.

It will promote a wide array of Big Ten sports and academic programming intended for anyone interested in the institution of the Big Ten, said Mike Vest, media relations manager of the Big Ten Network.

“As a premier college athletic and academic conference, the Big Ten sees enormous opportunity to reach millions of Big Ten alumni and sports fans across the nation through this new national network,” Vest said. “With three to five Illini football games, 15 to 20 men’s basketball games and an additional 40 Illini events over the course of the year, I know Illinois fans will really enjoy watching the network.”

DirecTV, AT&T; and a few smaller cable companies were the only cable providers signed to broadcast the network in the entire eight-state Big Ten region until Insight Communications Inc. agreed to carry the network on half of its cable systems yesterday.

The New York-based Insight will distribute the channel on expanded basic cable to approximately 640,000 households in certain parts of Ohio and Indiana. The deal does not include Illinois.

Although Comcast and the Big Ten Network discussed putting the channel on local expanded basic cable, Comcast recently stalled the negotiations, insisting the network belongs on a sports tier. The Big Ten Network, however, won’t budge on the position that it belongs on the expanded basic cable lineup, said Kent Brown, the University’s assistant athletic director for media relations.

“We believe that if you live within the eight states of the Big Ten footprint you should not have to pay any more to receive the network,” Vest said. “It’s hard to imagine finding more than 50 channels more important to a viewer within the Big Ten community than the Big Ten Network.”

Although Comcast does not seem willing to resume negotiations, Big Ten supporters have not given up hope.

“Big Ten athletics have proven time and time again to be very popular with a rabid following, considering the number of alumni,” Brown said. “At the end of the day, I believe the cable operators will negotiate.”