The Fox Sports Regional Networks , or simply Fox Sports Net (FSN), are a collection of cable TV regional sports networks in the United States owned and operated by News Corporation.
Beginnings
At the dawn of the cable television era, many regional sports networks (RSNs) vied to compete with the largest national sports network, ESPN . The most notable were the SportsChannel networks, which went on the air in 1976 with the original SportsChannel (now MSG Plus) and later branched out into Chicago and Florida; Prime Network, which went on the air in 1983 with the charter member being Home Sports and Entertainment (now FSN Southwest) and later branched out onto the West Coast as "Prime Sports"; and SportSouth, the RSN operated by Turner Broadcasting.
In 1996, News Corporation, which launched the over-the-air general-interest Fox Broadcasting Company in 1986, took over the Prime Network affiliates and renamed them all "Fox Sports Net." In 1996, Fox bought SportSouth and renamed it "FSN South." In 1998, SportsChannel America joined the Fox Sports Net family (except for the Florida affiliate, which joined in 2000).
Starting in September 2004, Fox Sports Net became known simply as FSN, but the name Fox Sports Net also remains in common use.
Programming strategy
The programming strategy that most FSN networks have adopted is to acquire the play-by-play broadcast rights to major sports teams in their regional market, which can then be promoted against nationally broadcast games on ESPN that have no local interest. (The strategy incidentally encourages non-cable subscribers to subscribe to cable TV in order to watch their favorite teams play.) In addition to local play-by-play coverage, FSN networks create pregame shows, postgame shows, and weekly "magazine" shows centered on the teams to attract additional viewers. In some markets, FSN competes directly with other regional sports networks for the right to air this team-specific programming.
FSN has competed directly with ESPN in the area of acquiring rights to collegiate sports at the conference level. One notable agreement is with the Pacific-10 Conference, in which packages of football and men's basketball regular-season games are aired across all FSN networks in the Pac-10 region. Every game (except the final) of the Pacific-10 Conference Men's Basketball Tournament is aired on FSN, as are a few Pac-10 matches in minor sports (e.g. baseball, volleyball).
Besides play-by-play, a common set of FSN programming is available to all its regional sports networks, most notably The Best Damn Sports Show Period and Final Score . In some of its regions, the competing Comcast SportsNet carries FSN programming on their channels.
Headquarters
Fox Sports Net is headquartered in Los Angeles' Westwood area. Its master control facilities are based in both Los Angeles and Houston. In February 2005, News Corporation (Fox's parent company) became 100 percent owner of FSN, after swapping assets with Cablevision Corporation, but was still identified in its copyright tag as "Fox Sports Net/National Sports Partners." (The name has since changed to "National Sports Programming.") Fox Sports Net also utilizes Stage 19 at Universal Studios Florida, after Nickelodeon Studios closed in 2005.
National prime time programming
In addition to regional programming, Fox Sports Net has some national prime time programming such as The Best Damn Sports Show Period and Chris Myers Interviews . FSN has tried to compete with ESPN in original programming, most notably in 1996, when FSN debuted the Fox Sports National Sports Report , a 30-minute sports news program designed to compete with ESPN's SportsCenter . The program originally began as a two hour program, but was steadily cut back as ratings dropped and costs increased. FSN hired popular former SportsCenter anchor Keith Olbermann and used him to promote the show heavily, but ratings continued to slide. The last edition of the National Sports Report aired in February 2002. In some markets, FSN airs the Regional Sports Report , usually headlined with the name of the region covered, such as the Midwest Sports Report or Detroit Sports Report . The regional reports began in 2000 to complement the national sports report, but many regional reports were cut in 2002 due to increasing costs.
Until 2008, these programs were billed as being part of FSN. However, the FSN name has been de-emphasized in advertising and promotion, and each network now uses its own logo. Most outlets either use the logo with the " FS (REGION)" template, the previous FSN logo (as used by the Liberty Sports Holdings-owned networks), or a completely different brand altogether (such as some of the Comcast Sportsnet networks and the MSG Network). With these changes, FSN's model may have now shifted to a syndication model rather than a complete national network.
Four entities own FSN-affiliated networks: News Corporation, Comcast, Cablevision, and Liberty Media (Liberty Sports Holdings).
Regional Fox Sports Net networks
Defunct FSN networks
Other FSN-owned/affiliated Networks
Fox College Sports (FCS)
Main article: Fox College SportsFSN also offers Fox College Sports (formerly Fox Sports Digital Networks) for digital cable subscribers. These are three channels (marked Atlantic, Central, and Pacific) that provide programming (primarily colleigate and high school sports, plus minor league sports) that would be carried from each individual FSN network, as well as each affiliate's regional sports reports and individually-produced programming (such as coaches shows, team magazines, and documentaries). More or less, these three networks are condensed versions of the 22 FSN-affiliated networks, including Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic, though the channels also show international events that fit too oddly on FSN or Fox Soccer Channel, such as the Commonwealth Games, World University Games, and the FINA World Swimming Championships.
The 3 FCS Channels offer the FSN feeds from the following channels, including live Big 12 Conference football, Pacific 10 Conference football and basketball and Atlantic Coast Conference basketball. They also rerun shows originally produced by and shown on the networks listed:
- FCS Atlantic: Fox Sports Pittsburgh, Fox Sports South, SportSouth, Fox Sports Florida, Sun Sports, and MSG Plus
- FCS Central: Fox Sports Detroit, Fox Sports Southwest, Fox Sports Houston, Fox Sports North, Fox Sports Wisconsin, Fox Sports Midwest, Fox Sports Kansas City, Fox Sports Indiana, and Fox Sports Ohio
- FCS Pacific: Fox Sports Arizona, Fox Sports Rocky Mountain, Fox Sports Utah, Fox Sports Northwest, Fox Sports West, and Prime Ticket.
Fox College Sports also shows Independent Women's Football League games, high school games, college magazine shows, and college coach's shows. Fox College Sports' partner channel is Big Ten Network.
On-screen graphics
FSN has often been the testing ground for the innovations that Fox comes up with graphically and the source of inspiration that other networks have for their graphics. They were the first U.S. sports channel to introduce the bar score/time graphic on the top of the screen (initially known as the FoxBox). Since FSN came up with the top-screen bar graphic, many other major networks have abandoned the corner box graphic in favor of the bar.
2001-mid-2005
FSN first used the scoring banner for most of its broadcasts beginning in 2001. The banner then was simpler than today's. It featured a transparent black rectangle, a baseball diamond graphic for baseball broadcasts on the far left, the team abbreviations in white with their scores in yellow boxes (the white boxes were used on some broadcasts until 2002). Then the quarter or inning, time or number of outs, pitch count/speed (baseball broadcasts), and the FSN logo on the far right. Until sometime in 2004, the logo said Fox SPORTS NET with the "FOX" in a white box, which was later changed to blue. Midway in July 2003, Fox Sports Net adopted new graphics for its baseball broadcasts, then later expanded them to college football, hockey, and basketball broadcasts, despite retaining the banner. Early in 2004, the logo was changed to reveal the FSN pillbox logo and "FOX SPORTS NET" in black; in July of that year, the "FOX SPORTS NET" was replaced with the region. Eventually, Fox Sports Net simply became known as FSN in September of that year.
FSN's parent network used this score banner but with a different graphics package from 2001 until 2003, although the parent network's baseball broadcasts continued to use these graphics during the 2004 season.
2005–Mid-2008
In the middle of June 2005, the banner was given a cosmetic upgrade, despite the graphics used since July 2003 are still used. The team abbreviations became white or black in the team's main color (depe
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