Filed under: Media
by Jon Friedman
Fox Sports 1, News Corp.’s new 24-hour television network, doesn’t have to topple ESPN to be a success.
There is enough room in the global sports-TV world to accommodate both media-industry superpowers.
Fox Sports 1 will launch in approximately 90 million U.S. households as opposed to the 99 million on ESPN and ESPN2. Fox Sports 1′s daily 11:00 p.m. Fox Sports Live show will challenge ESPN‘s traditional meal-ticket SportsCenter.
Perhaps Rupert Murdoch‘s greatest triumph, the Fox News Channel – steered brilliantly by Roger Ailes all through these years – has spoiled all of us when we take a critical eye to Fox Sports 1′s prospects. It helps to recall that it took FNC many years to establish itself and still more to surpass Time Warner’s (NYSE: TWX) CNN, which it surely did. Fox News, which holds a stranglehold on the cable news ratings, didn’t dominate the industry overnight. But it has been No. 1 in the ratings for so long that we automatically assume it was born in the top spot.
So, don’t look for Fox Sports 1 to crush ESPN on day one. Or even on day two or three, either. These things take time, you know.
“Our hope is that we can be equally professional” with ESPN, noted David Hill to the members of the media. Hill directed Fox Sports when it debuted two decades ago and will lead the new venture. “It’s going to take us a while,” he conceded. “We’re not expecting to knock ESPN off in the first week or two. It’s going to take two or three years. It will be a slog.”
News Corp. (NASDAQ: NWSA)will point proudly to its great success in cable news. “But Fox execs conveniently left out its failed attempt in the 1990s to create national sports TV programming, led on-air by then-ESPN refugee Keith Olbermann,” pointed out USA Today Sports.
The narrow-minded members of the media would like us to believe that the smackdown between ESPN, the crown jewel of Walt Disney Co., and Fox Sports 1, Rupert Murdoch‘s new baby, which launches on Aug. 17, will be – or has to be, anyway – some sort of a bloodsport between News Corp and Walt Disney. The two companies will compete furiously – naturally – but there are enough programming opportunities to go around.
We’ll get an idea of News Corp.’s commitment when it bids for the broadcasting rights to show college basketball games. The new Fox entity could also try to acquire the rights to Thursday night National Football League games (though these didn’t exactly set the world on fire last season). Murdoch’s operation may also ultimately attempt to outbid the competition for the National Basketball Association showcase.
A successful launch will boost the stock–market prospects of Fox Sports 1′s parent company. Wall Street relishes splashy new products and likes to reward companies for show is of great ambition. Stock-pickers turn thumbs down on companies that either can’t or won’t launch new ideas. Rupert Murdoch has historically been a maverick …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance
