BTN’s new series, "BTN LiveB1G," continues Feb. 5, with stories highlighting how the Penn State community is making an impact in State College and around the world. The program will air at 9:30 p.m.
The Penn State-focused episode will highlight the College of Agricultural Science’s Turfgrass Science Program, which is researching ways to increase the resilience of athletic playing surfaces to help reduce the number and severity of head and leg injuries. Also, Penn Staters have created a free mobile app, downloaded by farmers around the country, called DairyCents, which tracks feed costs and income information to help them with financial planning. The episode also will feature the Lunar Lion team, a group of Penn State students, faculty and engineers throughout the University who are involved in a competition to build a spacecraft to land on the moon.
In addition, Penn State men’s basketball coach Patrick Chambers explains his long-standing roots in State College. Viewers also will get a look at THON, a yearlong effort to raise funds to fight pediatric cancer that culminates in a dance marathon. Since 1977, THON — the largest student-run philanthropy in the world — has raised more than $89 million for pediatric cancer research and families of kids with cancer. This year’s dance marathon will be held Feb. 15 to 17 at University Park’s Bryce Jordan Center.
"BTN LiveBIG" is the second BTN collaborative campus program series produced in conjunction with the Big Ten Conference and its 12 universities. The first was 2012’s "Impact the World." Since the network launched in 2007, BTN has aired programs produced from each Big Ten university under the University Showcase heading. BTN is co-producing the series with Chicago-based TeamWorks Media, a creative content company that specializes in producing inspirational stories that also produced Impact.
A joint venture between the Big Ten Conference and Fox Networks, BTN is the first internationally distributed network dedicated to covering one of the premier collegiate conferences in the country. With more than 800 events, all in HD, the 24/7 network is the ultimate destination for Big Ten fans and alumni across the country, allowing them to see their favorite teams, regardless of where they live. BTN2Go is the 24/7 simulcast of BTN that delivers live and on-demand programming via the Internet, smartphones and tablets to customers of participating video providers. Events include football, men’s and women’s basketball games; dozens of Big Ten Olympic sports and championship events; studio shows; and classic games. The network televises and streams more Olympic sporting events and women’s sports than has ever been aired on any other network. Original programming highlights activities and accomplishments of some of the nation’s finest universities. The groundbreaking Student U initiative provides real-world experience for students interested in careers in sports television. The network is available to more than 90 million homes across the United States and Canada, and currently has agreements with more than 300 affiliates, including AT&T U-Verse, Atlantic Broadband, Cablevision, Charter, Comcast, Cox, DirecTV, DISH Network, Insight, Mediacom, Rogers Cable (Canada), Shaw Cable and Shaw Direct (Canada), Time Warner Cable and Verizon FiOS. For additional information, go to www.BTN.com.