Nov. 3, 2008

EAST LANSING, Mich. - Both Michigan State men's basketball exhibition games will be streamed live on BigTenNetwork.com. The Spartans open exhibition play against Northern Michigan on Wednesday, Nov. 5, and play Lake Superior State on Monday, Nov. 10. Both contests start at 7 p.m. The live web stream will include video from the Breslin Center video board and the radio call from the Spartan Radio Network. Events will be streamed live at BigTenNetwork.com at no cost to fans. The link to the game is http://video.bigtennetwork.com/MSU/live.

This season, the network is streaming all men's basketball exhibition games and any nonconference game that conflicts with other live programming on the network - a total of 37 games - while 107 games will be televised. Fifty-six women's basketball games will be streamed and, when combined with the 64 women's games that will be televised, the exposure for women's basketball is nearly doubled. Other sports that could be streamed this year include hockey, wrestling, baseball and softball.

President Mark Silverman said that with overflow channels only available during football season, the network has decided to stream the conflicted games and offer them free to fans. "Next year, we plan to significantly upgrade the quality of our streaming production through enhanced technology while offering more events online," he said.

The network is looking to eventually match the 400 live events currently planned to air on the network with an additional 400 streamed events that previously would not have been televised.