For you ESPN haters. Fox to launch 24 hour network

[bigmike23]

[h3]NEW YORK[/h3]
Today, FOX Sports Media Group (FSMG) makes television history, officially unveiling plans to launch a new, national, multi-sport network called FOX Sports 1. The announcement was made by FSMG Co-Presidents and COOs Randy Freer and Eric Shanks. Set to debut on Saturday, Aug. 17, just as FOX Sports kicks-off its 20th anniversary year, FS1 is available in over 90 million homes, making this the biggest sports cable network launch in history, and one of the largest network launches ever. At the outset, FS1 boasts nearly 5,000 hours of live event, news and original programming annually.

<img align="middle" alt="" src="LOGOURL" /> [h3]FOX SPORTS 1 IS HERE![/h3]
Check out our latest Facebook updates, tweets and photos from New York as FOX announces the launch of FOX Sports 1, a new 24-hour sports television network.

“Our ‘secret,’ admittedly a very poorly kept one, is now revealed,” said Shanks. “Fans are ready for an alternative to the establishment, and our goal for FS1 is to provide the best in-game experience possible, complemented by informative news, entertaining studio shows and provocative original programming.”

A robust schedule of live events forms the backbone of FOX Sports 1’s programming from Day 1, with college basketball, college football, NASCAR, soccer and UFC all on tap between launch and year’s end. In fact, the schedule on Aug. 17 features live events morning, noon and night including a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race from Michigan and “UFC on FS1 1” in prime time. In 2014, FSMG’s new rights agreement with MLB takes effect, bringing regular and postseason games to FS1.

“As a company we haven’t been afraid to innovate and take well-calculated risks,” added Freer. “We’ve devoted significant resources over the last few years to acquire and/or extend multi-platform rights with a wide variety of leagues and governing bodies well into the next decade, enough to give us a rich schedule right out of the box.”

More people consume and care about sports than ever before, so to satisfy that voracious demand FSMG deems the time is now to launch FS1. For example, when FOX Sports launched in 1994, late Sunday afternoon NFL on FOX games ranked as the 26th highest-rated program on television. Today, FOX’s national doubleheader games rank No. 1 for three years running.
[h3]FOX Sports 1 Programming Highlights[/h3]
COLLEGE BASKETBALL – Dozens of exclusive prime time games on Monday and Thursday nights, plus Saturday and Sunday coverage of the Big 12, Pac-12 and Conference USA.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL – Led by Notre Dame at Stanford, the Big Ten Championship Game and Pac-12 Championship Game (2014) on FOX, dozens of exclusive, live games from the Pac-12, Big 12 and Conference USA games on Thursday nights and Saturdays; triple- and quadruple-headers on Saturdays; Saturday pre- and postgame coverage.

MLB – Beginning in 2014, select League Championship Series and Division Series games; regular-season games over 26 Saturdays; live game-in-progress look-in show.

NASCAR – Select NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races as soon as 2015; NASCAR Camping World Truck Series races; NASCAR Sprint All-Star race; all SpeedWeeks events leading up to the Daytona 500 including: Daytona 500 Qualifying, Sprint Unlimited at Daytona (2014, 2017-22) and the Budweiser Duel, now in prime time; NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and NCWTS Practice and Qualifying sessions; NASCAR RaceDay, providing pre- and post-race coverage; NASCAR Victory Lane, a weekly wrap-up show; and Race Hub, a daily mid-day studio show with the latest from drivers, owners and garages.

SOCCER – Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday afternoon coverage of the world’s most prolific club soccer competitions, the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League, and CONCACAF Champions League featuring many of the world’s greatest and most successful clubs; the world’s oldest soccer competition, the FA Cup; CONCACAF Gold Cup; CONCACAF Qualifiers, FIFA Women’s World Cup coverage in 2015 and 2019; FIFA Men’s World Cup coverage in 2018 and 2022; delayed matches in prime time; weekly magazine and highlights shows.

UFC – Featured on Wednesday nights; live FIGHT NIGHTS through 2014, the first is scheduled for launch night, Saturday, Aug. 17; FOX event preliminary cards; UFC Tonight, the weekly authority for UFC news and information; 14 Saturday pay-per-view preliminary cards; hundreds of hours of library programs and events.

In addition to live events and studio programs, FS1 introduces FOX SPORTS LIVE, a 24/7 news franchise providing around-the-clock coverage through regularly scheduled programs, hourly updates and an information-rich ticker that provides a network agnostic sports event television schedule. Thousands of hours of news programming are expected annually from newly minted sets including a nightly program at 11:00 PM ET or immediately following events. A morning newscast is expected to launch in January 2014 in conjunction with FSMG’s expansive coverage of Super Bowl XLVIII.

“Building credibility and trust with our audience is paramount, so naturally we’ll provide the staples, like news, scores and highlights, but we’ll do it in a FOX Sports way,” offered Shanks. “Just as FOX NFL SUNDAY reinvented the pregame show, FOX SPORTS LIVE breaks new ground in the way sports news is presented. We already have the home-team advantage of significant audiences watching local games on our 22 regional sports networks as a platform to launch our new national news.”

Complementing FS1’s live events and news coverage at launch are several original programs, highlighted by RUSH HOUR, hosted by Regis Philbin, airing live weekdays (5:00-6:00 PM ET). Originating in New York City, Regis leads the charge along with a panel of sports professionals, celebrity guests and die-hard fans in this brand new, unpredictable, talk show. Following RUSH HOUR live every day is FOX FOOTBALL DAILY (6:00-7:00 PM ET), an extension of FOX NFL SUNDAY, the most-watched NFL pregame show for 19 straight years. FOX FOOTBALL DAILY, hosted by NFL on FOX personalities, including Terry Bradshaw, Howie Long, Jay Glazer, Gus Johnson, Erin Andrews and Mike Pereira, provides a daily dose of news, interviews and commentary from pro and collegiate football worlds. Both shows are expected to premiere at launch in August. Earlier this year, FSMG unveiled a unique and groundbreaking documentary franchise titled BEING:, a deep look into today's greatest athletes, teams and sports icons via unprecedented access. The first subject to appear this fall on FS1 is BEING: MIKE TYSON, the most feared man ever to step in a boxing ring. The multi-episode series is now in production.

FSMG’s experimentation with the “double box” commercial format, intended to keep viewers engaged throughout breaks, is expected to be an FS1 staple. Custom commissioned research conducted this year by Innerscope in concert with FOX Sports advertisers, along with data from IAG and Nielsen, demonstrates how the “double box” format adds value compared to the traditional full-screen break: IAG reported a 62% increase in brand recall; younger viewers are more likely to view “double box” commercials, according to Nielsen minute-by-minute ratings; Innerscope’s engagement score for “double box” commercials ranked +13% than average; and viewers see advertiser logos more than three times longer in “double box” versus standard format.

Launching together with FOX Sports 1 will be FOX Sports GO – a groundbreaking mobile sports experience for iPhone, iPad, Android devices, and web. FOX Sports Go will offer more than 1,000 live games and events from across FOX Sports, FOX Sports 1 and FOX Sports’ 22 regional sports networks, as well as scores, highlights, news, stats, and analysis. The live games and events will be available to subscribers of participating cable, satellite, and telco providers at no additional cost

 

[rook]

This is totally awesome. I have grown tired of ESPN...

 

[dlo13]

Regis, tho?

 

[bigmike23]

FS1 will carry will air an 11 p.m. ET news show meant to directly challenge ESPN's SportsCenter. Hill, noting the head-to-head competition, said: "The quality of sports journalism on ESPN is world-class. It's not going to be easy. But we'll give it a shot."

FS1 will also be used to replace Fox's Speed channel and will debut in about 90 million TV households compared to about 99 million for ESPN and ESPN2,

In addition, Fox, which has next season's Super Bowl in New York, will use FS1 for saturation coverage in the days leading up to the game.

Along with live sports events, including baseball and NASCAR, Fox will create programming for FS1, including Rush Hour, airing weekdays at 5 p.m. ET, hosted by Regis Philbin, who sat next to his TV morning-show replacement Michael Strahan at the Fox announcement.

Starting in 2014, FS1 will carry regular-season MLB games for 26 weeks – but the Fox broadcast network will go from its 26-week schedule to just 12 regular-season game broadcast windows.

Fox also says an unspecified number of its MLB postseason games, in divisional and LCS play, will migrate from Fox to FS1, as will an unspecified number of NASCAR Sprint Cup races and UFC mixed-martial arts events.

Fox is closing in on a deal for the TV basketball rights for the Catholic colleges, including Georgetown and Marquette, leaving the Big East – but didn't announce the deal Tuesday.

Among other new shows on FS1 will be Fox Football Daily, weekdays at 6 p.m. ET. It will include appearances by Fox's various football analysts and announcers, including Terry Bradshaw, Jay Glazer, Howie Long, Erin Andrews and Mike Pereira. Andrews said she wasn't ready to fill in details on that show or her role on FS1 generally.

FS1 will also air an NFL pregame show that begins before Fox's broadcast network show – thus taking on the ESPN and NFL Network pregame shows that begin before the NFL pregame shows on Fox and CBS that start at noon ET.

Fox rules analyst Pereira says he hopes to be a part of that. "I would like to be able to teach a little bit. You can't do that in just 140 characters on Twitter," he says.

FS1 will also take on ESPN and HBO Sports in sports documentaries. Its Being documentary series begins next fall with a film on Mike Tyson.

Fox is considering converting its Fuel TV channel, in at least 30 million TV households, to a Fox Sports 2 cable spinoff channel. But Freer says "we're not prepared to say anything on that now."

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sport...hallenging-espn-dominance-catholic-7/1965299/

 

[JCMojica24]

Can't wait!

 

[Ja's 2¢]

finally a real competitor to the 24hr ESPN format.

 

[al3xis]

Rupert Murdoch rarely loses - hopefully that holds true.

 

[westcoastsfinest]

Didn't they already have FSN back in the day?

 

[dipsetgeneral]

Kinda cool, I guess?

 

[illoquent aka dsk]

Competition is always good but I'm not holding out hope on Fox being the righteous saviors. ESPN does need the kick in the *** though.

I'm shocked RyGuy hasn't posted in here yet.

 

[moonman818]

Hopefully they give more love to the NBA (besides lebron) than ESPN.

 

[dmxfury]

Could be cool. Honestly with that much TV time and coverage, I only stay interested with historical games or films/docs. During the day I can only do so much "analysis" crap. Give me great classic games during the day and then live action at night

 

[ohphishul]

This is totally awesome. I have grown tired of ESPN...

 

[jhawk826]

They still have a ways to go. The only property that genuinely excites me is the new Big East.

CBS and NBC say good luck.

 

[duba169]

If ESPN became fox news, will fox sports become what ESPN was?



one can only hope

 

[ooiron manoo]

Didn't they already have FSN back in the day?

The problem with FSN was that it was regional. Fox didn't want to go head to head with ESPN, so they didn't go National with any sport besides the NFL. They thought regional was the way to go. That failed miserably and a lot of their regional network's floundered and most have gone away.

They are going all in simply because ESPN has become a monopoly on the national level, even the casual fan is noticing the cracks in ESPN's agenda. Fox can really capitalize if they do this right. Worst case scenario, they force ESPN to right their ship. I doubt that happens, ESPN, is an arrogant beast right now.

I don't watch any of their programming besides "Happy Hour" (PTI/ATH), only live sports, rarely watch Sportscenter.

Next to go will be all these college conference networks.

 

[bigmike23]

They still have a ways to go. The only property that genuinely excites me is the new Big East.

CBS and NBC say good luck.

they already bring more to the table then both CBS and NBC did

 

[jhawk826]

They still have a ways to go. The only property that genuinely excites me is the new Big East.

CBS and NBC say good luck.

they already bring more to the table then both CBS and NBC did

They do, but besides Soccer does FOX truly pose a threat to ESPN? They don't. Casual fans can care less about ESPNs spin. At best, they'll be in second.

 

[nycknicks105]

ESPN needs a wake up call.

The material they put out is absolute garbage sometimes.

Still tough to get rid of the ESPN name and charm.

 

[JCMojica24]

They do, but besides Soccer does FOX truly pose a threat to ESPN? They don't. Casual fans can care less about ESPNs spin. At best, they'll be in second.

They're doing great things with the UFC too.

 

[アミーゴ]

They have BIG plans. Might be making the switch from SI to them in the next few months.

 

[kevin cleveland]

Any huge, all-encompassing network is probably going to suck.

The individual sports networks are the way to go.

 

[jordan23dotcom]

Honestly what do some of y'all want? Stats, scores, highlights? I'm thinking some of y'all just hate any and everything. Espn is not bad at all.

 

[ajiiiplatinum]

Will FS1 also love Tom Brady, Bill Belicheck, The Patriots, Red Sox and Celtics??!!?!?

 

[dt43]

Honestly what do some of y'all want? Stats, scores, highlights? I'm thinking some of y'all just hate any and everything. Espn is not bad at all.

I just don't like how ESPN repeats certain storylines ad nauseum and beats them into the ground. I want stats, scores, and highlights too, but I don't need to hear about Tim Tebow and Lebron James FG% 590257 times before you show me said highlights.