I think we will see the channel added before the start of the season. Per a post from flyingsquirrel on the HD forum the big 10 states would get the channel in AT 150. Other states would get the channel in the multi-sport package. With 13 millions subs that's a huge difference in the total cost, easily 7 figures a year.
That's an interesting twist.
Let's see, if 25% of the nation's population is in the B10 region, and assuming that E*'s subs are distributed proportionally ...
3.25M times $13.20/year = $42.9M
Then if 10-11% of E*s other subs get the multi-sport package, that's about 1M.
1.0M times $1.20/year = $1.2M
Otherwise it would have been
9.75M times $1.20/year = $11.7M
So it would appear that E* will save around $10.5M/yr. However it could be less than that if the BTN didn't give E* a 10 cents/month deal for inclusion in the sports tier. If they said it would be 25 cents/month in the sports tier, then that would add another $1.8M to the cost.
There's also a chance that they could have gotten a bit of a discount within the Big Ten region, as the BTN has been saying the only thing that is non-negotiable is inclusion in the basic tier, implying that price wasn't absolutely fixed.
So all in all, there's a good chance that this is a deal in the $40M range, and if so, then the BTN got about 80% of what they were seeking.
If the inclusion of the BTN in the multi-sports tier helps E* to sell it to more subs, then they will offset some of those expenses with new revenue.