Murdoch and Fox going to try to compete with ESPN

Murdoch is trying to do this by Cult of Personality. He believes people are going to follow Gus Johnson and Erin Andrews, to name the most prominent two, wherever they go. He is completely wrong about that, but that's the angle they're trying.

It's a great thing to have in existence for anyone who has a contract up for renewal in the next few years.

 

haha, that is good stuff. All true.

 

This is a lot different than Fox trying to go national with a bunch of RSNs.

Even though Fox owned most of them (licensed the name to some others), you still had issues with programming -- the Tigers game runs late on FSN Detroit, the Mariners are playing the afternoon game and bumping that extra showing of Worst Damn on FSN Northwest, different "voices" for different markets, market penetration.

Fox Sports 1 is different. Speed currently is in 90 million homes. (It was in 40 million about 10 years ago ... Fox really grew the network.) Right off the bat, Fox has strong penetration. The problem with Speed is it isn't in HD everywhere (where I live included), but that can be rectified. And Fox has been stocking up on sports rights. All those games airing on FX and Fox Sports XXX and Fox Soccer move to Fox Sports 1.

The concern I'd have about this working is Comcast. Ten years ago, Comcast was for the most part just distributing programming. Now it owns the programming and is distributing it. It has a vested interest in seeing Fox fail.

 

That vested interest puts Comcast in an awkward position antitrust law-wise. Comcast happily carries all of Fox's networks now, sports included, for the carriage fees.

 

All those games airing on FX and Fox Sports XXX and Fox Soccer move to Fox Sports 1.


Do any of these get ratings?

 

Fox Sports XXX would have the best chance of penetrating the ESPN bubble.

I read somewhere -- hell, it might have been from someone linking it here -- that the Big 4 are really interested in sports coverage because it not only can generate ratings, it's also largely immune to time-shifting and fast-forwarding. You're generally not going to bother keeping a game on your DVR unless you plan to watch it right away when you get home from work, it's a classic or there's a boob shot. Few people have a TiVo filled with every game from the Columbus Blue Jackets 2009-10 season.