Ohio senator Bill DeMora hopes to introduce legislation regarding stream-only OSU games

Saturday’s Big Ten game between Ohio State and Purdue will be available exclusively on Peacock, NBC’s streaming service. For the Boilermakers and their fans, it’s not a huge change. This will be Purdue’s third straight Peacock-only game. But for the Buckeyes, it’s a different story.

This will be Ohio State’s first Peacock-only game and the first time the Buckeyes haven’t been on a traditional television broadcast since 1997. Bill DeMora, a state senator from Ohio who represents Columbus, is not happy about it and trying to find a better standard going forward.

“DeMora plans to introduce legislation and has asked the Legislative Service Commission to look into the issue,” Haley BeMiller of The Columbus Dispatch reported. “That means details are scarce at this point. Because schools like Ohio State are publicly funded, DeMora believes they should be required to provide a local viewing alternative when games air on paid streaming services.”

DeMora also referenced his constituents being upset, especially given that many bars will not be broadcasting the game.

“I’ve heard from a lot of folks that are pissed off that the local bar doesn’t have the game or they have to spend X amount of money to buy one football game on this Peacock network so they can watch Ohio State,” DeMora said, per BeMiller.

This is the first year of the Big Ten’s broadcasting agreement with NBC. The network has a longstanding relationship with Notre Dame and has broadcast one Fighting Irish game exclusively on Peacock for each of the last three seasons (Toledo in 2021, UNLV in 2022 and Central Michigan in 2023).

Peacock does not offer a free trial. The cheapest subscription is a monthly fee of $5.99, plus tax.

[The Columbus Dispatch]