Fox Sports Networks
Fox Sports Networks (FSN), formerly known as Fox Sports Net, was the collective name for a group of regional sports channels in the United States. Formed in 1996 by News Corporation, the networks were acquired by The Walt Disney Company on March 20, 2019, following its acquisition of 21st Century Fox. A condition of that acquisition imposed by the U.S. Department of Justice required Disney to sell the regional networks by June 18, 2019, 90 days after the completion of its acquisition.[1] Disney subsequently agreed to sell the networks (excluding the YES Network, being reacquired by Yankee Global Enterprises) to Sinclair;[2][3] the transaction was completed on August 22, 2019.[4] The networks continued to use the Fox Sports name only under a transitional license agreement while rebranding options were explored.[5] A rebranding cross-partnership with Bally's Corporation took effect on March 31, 2021, and the networks were rebranded as Bally Sports, ending the Fox Sports Networks branding after 25 years.[6][7]
This article is about the former regional sports channels. For the flagship national sports channel owned by the Fox Sports Media Group, see Fox Sports 1. For the current regional sports channels, see Bally Sports.Country
United States
- Nationwide
- (through regional affiliates)
Houston, Texas
English
720p (HDTV)
(HD feeds downgraded to letterboxed 480i for SDTV sets)
News Corporation (1996–2013)
21st Century Fox (2013–2019)
The Walt Disney Company (2019)
Diamond Sports Group
(a joint venture between Sinclair Broadcast Group and Allen Media Group) (2019–2021)
November 1, 1996
March 31, 2021
- Fox Sports Net (1996–2004)
- FSN (2004–2008)
- Fox Sports Local (2008–2012)
Each of the channels in the group carried regional broadcasts of sporting events from various professional, collegiate and high school sports teams (with broadcasts typically exclusive to each individual channel, although some were shown on multiple FSN channels or syndicated to a local broadcast station within a particular team's designated market area), along with regional and national sports discussion, documentary and analysis programs.
Depending on their individual team rights, some Fox Sports Networks maintained overflow feeds available via subscription television providers in their home markets, which provided alternate programming when not used to carry game broadcasts that the main feed could not carry due to scheduling conflicts. Fox Sports Networks was headquartered in Houston, Texas, with master control facilities based in both Houston and Los Angeles; FSN also maintained production facilities at Stage 19 at Universal Studios Florida (which formerly served as home of Nickelodeon Studios until its closure in 2005).
High definition[edit]
All of the Fox Sports Networks regional affiliates maintained high definition simulcast feeds presented in 720p (the default resolution format for 21st Century Fox's broadcast and pay television properties). All sports programming broadcast on each of the networks (including most team-related analysis and discussion programs, and non-event amateur sports programs) was broadcast in a format optimized for 16:9 widescreen displays, with graphics framed within a widescreen safe area rather than the 4:3 safe area, intended to be shown in a letterboxed format for standard definition viewers.
National programs[edit]
Programming strategy[edit]
The programming strategy adopted by most of the Fox Sports Networks was to acquire the play-by-play broadcast rights to major sports teams in their regional market. This did not include NFL games, since the league's contracts require all games to be aired on broadcast television in each participating team's local markets. Therefore, FSN focused on other major professional leagues, like the MLB, NHL, NBA and WNBA.
In addition to local play-by-play coverage, the FSN networks also broadcast and produced pre-game shows, post-game shows, and weekly "magazine" shows centered on the teams that maintained rights with the individual network. In some markets, FSN competed directly with other regional sports networks for the broadcast rights to team-specific programming. FSN networks also purchased shows or broker time slots for sports and outdoors programming from outside producers in their region to fill out their schedule further, with Fox Sports purchasing additional programming for national airing. Finally, low-trafficked late night and early morning timeslots were programmed locally with paid programming.
Also, FSN competed directly with ESPN in acquiring the conference rights to various collegiate sports events. One notable agreement was that with the Pac-12 Conference, in which packages of football and men's basketball regular season games were broadcast across all FSN networks within the regions served by each Pac-12 member university. Fox Sports Networks broadcast the majority of the Pac-12 Conference men's basketball tournament, except the tournament final, as well as a few Pac-12 matches from other conference-sanctioned sports (such as baseball and volleyball).
Besides play-by-play game rights, FSN provided a common set of programming that was available to all its regional sports networks, most notably The Dan Patrick Show, The Best Damn Sports Show Period and Final Score (TBDSSP and Final Score eventually ceased production, while The Dan Patrick Show later moved to the NBC Sports Network). Until August 2012, in some of regions served by that RSN, member channels of the competing Comcast SportsNet (as mentioned above) carried FSN programming through broadcast agreements with Fox Sports.
Fox Sports Networks' national sports telecasts were formerly marketed under the "FSN" brand; these national programs began to use more generic branding with fewer references to FSN or Fox in 2008, as a result of a number of Fox Sports Net affiliates being rebranded or realigned with other RSN chains (including FSN New England and FSN Bay Area, which both became part of Comcast SportsNet; FSN New York's relaunch as MSG Plus, the sister to MSG Network; and the eventual relaunch of several FSN affiliates acquired by DirecTV Sports Networks under the Root Sports brand), however these networks later reverted to utilizing Fox branding on their FSN-syndicated broadcasts.
National prime time programming[edit]
In addition to regional programming, the Fox Sports Networks carried some prime time programming distributed to all of the regional networks (including past and present series such as The Best Damn Sports Show Period and Chris Myers Interviews). FSN tried to compete with ESPN in regards to original programming, most notably with the National Sports Report, a daily sports news program designed to compete with ESPN's SportsCenter, which debuted on FSN in 1996. Originally a two-hour program known as Fox Sports News, the running time of National Sports Report was steadily cut back (eventually dwindling to 30 minutes) as its ratings declined and the cost of producing the program increased. FSN hired popular former SportsCenter anchor Keith Olbermann and used him to promote the show heavily; ratings continued to slide (especially as Best Damn Sports Show Period's popularity increased), however, leading Fox Sports to cancel the National Sports Report, which aired its last edition in February 2002.
In some markets, FSN aired the Regional Sports Report (whose headline title was usually customized with the name of the region in which the particular program was broadcast, such as the Midwest Sports Report or Detroit Sports Report), a companion news program focusing primarily on regional sports as well as highlights and news on other sports teams that debuted in 2000 to complement the National Sports Report; many of the regional reports were cancelled in 2002 due to increasing costs of producing the individual programs.[112]
Most of the national studio programming seen on FSN originated from the Fox Television Center in Hollywood, CA; in 1998, operations moved to the new Fox Network Center, located on the 20th Century Fox backlot in Century City. Some programming was instead produced from the FSN headquarters in the Westwood district.
Pay-per-view[edit]
FSN distributed its first pay-per-view event on November 10, 2006, a boxing match in which former heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield defeated Fres Oquendo in a unanimous decision at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas. The fight was also streamed free of charge on the FoxSports.com website outside the United States.
Americans in Focus[edit]
In February 2008, FSN launched a public service initiative called "Americans in Focus", with the sponsorship support of Farmers Insurance. This initiative consists of one-minute vignettes profiling non-white persons, with segments airing on the FSN networks in February 2008 and 2009 during Black History Month, from September 15 to October 15, 2008, for Hispanic Heritage Month and in March 2009 for Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. The Americans in Focus vignettes and the companion sub-site on the Fox Sports website were discontinued in April 2009.