Yesterday the Big Ten Network announced the launch of their revamped BTN2Go 24/7 news and streaming platform. The launch features a more user-personalized layout, as fans can select a certain school that they want to follow, such as their current school or alma mater.
“Since launching in 2011, BTN2Go has been the premier destination on game day for fans around the country to watch their school’s live events,” said Mark Silverman, President of BTN on Thursday in an official press release. “We are proud to build on that foundation by offering our users terrific school-specific content in a way that is highly personalized.”
The main goal of the overhaul was to make it easier for fans of a specific University to aggregate content into one place. It’s not necessarily true that every person who watches the Big Ten Network is a fan of every team, and BTN realizes this. “Ultimately we are shifting from more or less a generic BTN2Go version, to a school-specific version,” said Jordan Maleh, the Director of Digital & Consumer Marketing at BTN.
When users pick a specific school within BTN2Go, they will then have access to content ranging from an interview with University of Illinois head football coach, Lovie Smith, to an all-access, insider view of a Michigan State men’s basketball practice.
Maleh said that the most important thing about the change in landscape of BTN2Go is the fact that users won’t have to go digging for the content they want. “Everything will be prompted for you,” said Maleh.
Schools are producing a lot of content for all of their sports and now instead of the schools sharing that content, BTN will be broadly distributing all of those interviews, features on student-athletes and more.
According to Maleh, BTN is the first collegiate network to roll out an all-encompassing app. There will be curated key social content as well as the usual live event experience which BTN2Go has always offered. “Bringing those together is going to influence the user experience,” said Maleh.
BTN also realizes that as a fan, you want a way to be able to show your allegiance to your favorite team. They have done just that with the new BTNmoji keyboard. The keyboard integrates different custom emoji’s such as mascots from different teams like Herbie Husker, Goldy Gopher, Herky the Hawk and many more. “Conversation can stem from the keyboard where you can talk a little trash,” said Maleh.
With college football about to kick into full swing, fans can now be up to date with their favorite B1G team by only having to visit one place. “It’s a one stop shop,” as Maleh summed it up. “You can find information right away instead of going to a different platform. We’re going to be able to put everything together.”
BTN2Go can be downloaded here, in the app store.