Fox Sports Networks

Fox Sports Networks (formerly known as Fox Sports Net) is the collective name for a group of regional sports networks in the United States that are primarily owned and operated by the Fox Entertainment Group division of 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 Fox Sports 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, entered a joint venture with TCI's Liberty Media and rebranded their Prime Network affiliates as "Fox Sports Net." In 1996, Fox bought SportSouth and renamed it "Fox Sports South". In 1997 the Fox/Libery joint-venture purchased a 40% interest in Cablevision's sports properties including the SportsChannel America networks, Madison Square Garden, the New York Knicks and the New York Rangers. In early 1998, SportsChannel America joined the Fox Sports Net family. Only SportsChannel Florida was not rebranded at this time and would not join FSN until 2000.

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 except during the playoffs.

Starting in September 2004, Fox Sports Net became known simply as FSN, but the name Fox Sports Net also remained in common use until recent years, when the new name "Fox Sports Local" has been used to refer to its regional networks.

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 (depending on color contrast), and the scores are now in white boxes. The scores would flash, making a futuristic computer sound, whenever the scores change. On the baseball broadcasts, the diamond graphic on the far left would flash, circling the bases with a graphic below the banner with the words "HOME RUN" and the team's or player's name shown in electronic lettering. Also with the baseball broadcasts, the diamond graphic changed between 2005 and 2006. Also, the FSN logo on the far right is now in a black oval-like shape with the region in white.

In a 2005 deal, Fox sold their interest of Madison Square Garden and the teams that play there back to Cablevision. In exchange Fox gained complete owenrship of Fox Sports Ohio and Fox Sports Florida. Cablevision gained full ownership of Fox Sports Chicago and New York. Cablevision also gained a 50% interest in Fox Sports New England (Comcast owned 50%). Fox and Cablevision retained joint-ownership of Fox Sports Bay Area. Fox Sports Chicago closed in 2006 after losing the rights to pro-sports teams in 2004 to the newly launched CSN Chicago. In April 2007 Cablevision sold their interest in the New England and Bay Area networks to Comcast, and they joined Comcst SportNet in July 2007 and March 2008 respectively. Fox Sports New York (now MSG+) continues to carry Fox Sports programming.

2008-2011
For the 2008 college football season, the scoring banner went back to a box on the top-left portion of the screen, featuring text in an athletic-like font, with similarities to the text style of Big Ten Network's and Fox's current graphic styling. The box changes to the colors of the team possessing the ball, with down information in the top portion of the box and a text box with information such as punt hangtime extending from the bottom, and the size of the possessing team's scoring area expands with the possession arrow. The box flips over to indicate a score, and no FSN branding is seen onscreen beyond the local network's logo in the top-right hand corner. After the debut, variations of the package began to be implemented during other major league events shown on FSN affiliates, beginning with NHL telecasts on October 11, 2008, NBA telecasts on October 28 (initially using a smaller box for scores in the bottom-right for the 2008-09 season, but switching to a horizontal "strip" design for the 2009-2010 season), and MLB games on both FSN and the Fox network upon the beginning of the new season in April 2009

A new plain-text logo design also debuted with the new graphics for FSN owned and operated affiliates, featuring "FS" lettering in bold, followed by the region name (or a team name during major league events, also colored in the respective team's colors). The word "Net" was also dropped from the station names as well. The new logo was only implemented by Fox-owned FSN affiliates; DirecTV Sports Networks' affiliates debuted the new graphics but maintained the previous "pillbox" logo, and FSN New York and Comcast's affiliates re-branded under their own brands, MSG Plus and Comcast SportsNet, before the FSN re-launch.

In 2010, FSN O&O's also began to increase use of the standard Fox Sports brand through various means, such as using the standard Fox Sports microphone flags, debuting localized versions of the Fox Sports frontcap before live broadcasts, and incorporating the Fox Sports logo into a new logo animation for the network's bug. In 2011, some FSN networks also followed the lead of the Fox network by framing its broadcasts for the 16:9 aspect ratio (which moves the logo bug into the extreme right corner of the high definition image, and moves the corner score box to the extreme left) and letterboxing the widescreen image on its standard definition feeds.

2011-present
Fox's regional sports networks and national programming began to phase in the new standard Fox Sports graphics package (which originally debuted with Fox's NFL coverage in 2010), beginning with the 2011 MLB season, the 2011 college football season, the 2011-12 NHL season and the 2011-12 NBA season. Affiliates owned by DirecTV Sports Networks re-branded as Root Sports at the start of the MLB season as well, but initially still used the previous design along with intros and bumpers from a new package designed by Troika Design Group, which was fully implemented at the start of the 2011 NHL season.

At the beginning of September 2012, Fox Sports introduced an updated logo across all of its properties, including its regional networks. The "FS" abbreviation was dropped entirely in these new logos, now using the updated Fox Sports logo followed by the region name (or during major sporting events, the team name). The name was then changed to Fox Sports Networks.

Headquarters
Fox Sports Networks 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 Fox Sports Networks, 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 Networks also utilizes Stage 19 at Universal Studios Florida, after Nickelodeon Studios closed in 2005.

Comcast SportsNet
From its inception in 1997 until July 31, 2012 Comcast had an agreement to carry select Fox Sports Net programming on most of its networks. The CSN networks carrying FSN programming were Bay Area, California, Chicago, Mid-Atlantic, New England, and Philadelphia. As of September 2012, Fox is syndicating select FSN college football games to broadcast stations in some of these markets.

Fox College Sports (FCS)
Fox Sports Networks 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 collegiate 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-12 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 South/Fox Sports Carolinas/Fox Sports Tennessee, SportSouth, Fox Sports Florida, Sun Sports, MSG Plus, and Root Sports Pittsburgh,


 * 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 West, Prime Ticket, Root Sports Rocky Mountain/Root Sports Utah, and Root Sports Northwest.

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.

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. (This does not include NFL games, since the league's contracts require all local games to be aired on terrestrial television.) 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-12 Conference, in which packages of football and men's basketball regular-season games are aired across all FSN networks in the Pac-12 region. Every game (except the final) of the Pacific-12 Conference Men's Basketball Tournament is aired on FSN, as are a few Pac-12 matches in minor sports (e.g. baseball, volleyball).

Besides play-by-play, a common set of FSN programming 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 ceased production, while The Dan Patrick Show moved to the NBC Sports Network). Until August 2012, in some of its regions, the competing Comcast SportsNet carried FSN programming on their channels.

On April 4, 2010, Fox Sports extended its brand to sporting events shown on FSN affiliates it controls. A new opening, scaled down from that of the broadcast network, now heralds all events, and announcers now carry microphones with the Fox Sports logo.

National prime time programming
In addition to regional programming, the Fox Sports Networks have 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 as a part of FSN. However, as FSN O&O's began to drop the FSN name in favor of returning to the "Fox Sports (region)" name (abbreviated as "FS" in branding), and other FSN affiliates began to adopt their own brands (including Comcast SportsNet, FSN New York becoming MSG Plus, and DirecTV Sports Networks' affiliates becoming Root Sports), these national programs stopped using the FSN name or logo on-air, allowing these re-branded affiliates to air this programming under their own name.

Live national play-by-play

 * Big 12 college football & women's college basketball
 * Conference USA college football & men's and women's college basketball
 * Pac-12 college football & men's and women's college basketball
 * UEFA Champions League soccer (selected Tuesday and Wednesday matches)

Other sports

 * Association of Volleyball Professionals (pro beach volleyball)
 * Indian Wells Masters and Miami Masters tennis tournaments
 * Campbell's Hall of Fame Tennis Classic
 * Red Bull Air Race

Other shows
In addition, FSN airs an extensive lineup of poker shows, including Poker Superstars Invitational Tournament and MansionPoker.net PokerDome Challenge. Recently, it was announced that the World Poker Tour will broadcast its 7th season on FSN as well.
 * Boys in the Hall chronicles notable baseball players. Narrated by Tom Brokaw.
 * Since October 25, 2010, FSN has simulcast the sports talk radio program The Dan Patrick Show. In 2012, it moved to the NBC Sports Network.
 * Amazing Sports Stories is a 30-minute weekly show in which re-enactments are used to tell various human interest stories in the sports world. The premiere episode on April 13 recounted Bert Shepard's only game as a major-league pitcher; he is the only player in Major League Baseball history who played with a prosthetic device (it replaced one of his legs).  Some subsequent episodes featured Jackie Mitchell, a female pitcher who struck out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in an exhibition game; Lawrence Lemieux, a Canadian Olympic yachtsman who sacrificed his chance at a medal to save the life of two fellow competitors from Singapore; and Ben Malcolmson, a writer for a college newspaper (The Daily Trojan) who walked onto the USC Trojans football team.
 * Baseball's Golden Age uses film footage shot between the 1920s and 1960s to tell the history of baseball during that time. It premiered on July 6 for a scheduled 13-episode run.
 * 2Xtreem Motorcycle TV is a themed motorcycle customization show. The four person team consists of current and former AMA licensed racers and mechanics.  Builds include a tribute to NASA's Apollo Project and a bike built for NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson and his charitable foundation. Future builds include bikes for rock music performer Jason Bonham (Foreigner) and Juan Pablo Montoya, another NASCAR star who was once in Formula One and also a former Indianapolis 500 winner. 2Xtreem left FSN in October 2008 after a 13-week run during which it was the highet rated show to ever premier on the network with an overall average of.68.  2X Motorcycle TV can now be seen on regional broadcast and cable networks across the country as well as on the new Untamed Sports Network nationally.
 * Sport Science, which premiered on September 30, explains various athletic skills and techniques through the scientific method. FSN set up a performance laboratory at an airport hangar to measure these techniques.
 * Toughest Cowboy is a series of weekly competitions in which rodeo cowboys attempt to ride in bareback, saddle bronc, and bull riding. Each of those three disciplines is a round in the event, and this show tours arenas throughout the United States.
 * Mind, Body & Kickin' Moves, a re-edited version of the British martial arts show Mind, Body & Kick Ass Moves.
 * FSN has unveiled two shows that tie in to college football's Bowl Championship Series, for which four of the five games will be televised by Fox Sports. In September 2006, FSN premiered BCS Breakdown, a preview of that week's top games, with an eye on how they might influence the BCS standings.  Tom Helmer is the host, with analysis from Gary Barnett and Petros Papadakis.  On October 15, 2006, it debuted The Official BCS Ratings Show, an expansion of the earlier announcement on the broadcast network.  The on-air team is the same for this show.
 * On June 26, 2006, FSN debuted In Focus, which effectively replaces Beyond the Glory, a program in the vein of Biography and SportsCentury which ran from 2001 until early 2006. This new half-hour takes a look at the impact of a particular sports event, mostly told through the medium of still photography.  Dick Enberg is the host.

Defunct programs
These programs once aired on FSN, but have since been cancelled: On July 3, 2006, FSN debuted FSN Final Score, the first national sports news program on the network since the cancellation of the National Sports Report. FSN veterans Van Earl Wright, Barry LeBrock, and Andrew Siciliano have been joined by newcomers Greg Wolf and Danyelle Sargent. Rick Jaffe, the show's executive producer, promised that the half-hour program will focus on showing game highlights, without additional analysis or interviews. The program changed its name to simply Final Score on April 23, 2008.
 * I, Max: Talk show hosted by Max Kellerman. A combination of poor ratings and the repercussions of the death of Kellerman's brother caused the show's demise.
 * The Last Word: Another talk show. Originally, this had a bicoastal format, with Wallace Matthews hosting in New York City and Jim Rome in Los Angeles.  During this show's run, Matthews was removed and Rome hosted by himself.
 * Totally NASCAR: A daily show about NASCAR racing. This program received access to race highlights denied to ESPN2's RPM 2Night.  Whether this decision was related to RPM 2Night's cancellation in 2003 remains debatable, but this show was itself cancelled after the 2004 season.  A modified version of this show, called Around the Track, now airs on many, but not all, FSN affiliates.
 * 54321: A short-lived action sports news and variety show that began airing in November 2002, and was hosted by Leeann Tweeden, Chad Towersey, Kip Williamson, and Jason "Wee-Man" Acuña. It was cancelled in November 2003 due to poor ratings.
 * Two game shows: The Ultimate Fan League, hosted by Bil Dwyer; and Sports Geniuses, hosted by Matt Vasgersian.
 * You Gotta See This, a compilation of unusual video highlights from the world of sports.
 * FSN Across America, which was a newsmagazine show. When one of its co-hosts, Carolyn Hughes, was revealed to have an affair with Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Derek Lowe in 2004, Hughes was dropped from the show and released by the network. FSN cited a violation of a morals clause in Hughes' contract.  The show died shortly after that.
 * Before that, another magazine, Goin' Deep, had aired from 2000 to 2001 with Joe Buck, then Chris Myers, as host. That show resembled Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel with its hour-long format and focus on contentious issues in sports.
 * Shaun Alexander Live was a short lived variety show in 2001 that poked fun of Alexander's lack or recognition despite of all his accomplishments.
 * TNA Impact!, a professional wrestling program, aired on FSN for a little more than a year, starting in June 2004 to May 2005, but has since moved to Spike TV.
 * The Best Damn Sports Show Period
 * The Chris Myers Interview
 * FSN Pro Football Preview
 * Totally Football
 * The Sports List
 * Beyond the Glory
 * The FSN Baseball Report

Pay-per-view
On November 10, 2006, FSN distributed its first pay-per-view event. Evander Holyfield, former heavyweight boxing champion, defeated Fres Oquendo in a unanimous decision at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas. The fight was also distributed free of charge on the FoxSports.com website outside the United States.

High Definition
A 720p high definition simulcast is available for all Fox Sports regional affiliates. All sports programming on is broadcast in a format optimized for 16:9 widescreen displays, with graphics now 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.

Americans in Focus
In 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 persons of non-Caucasian ethnicity. Americans in Focus launched in February 2008 for Black History Month and continued all through September and October for Hispanic Heritage Month. Focus returned in February 2009 for Black History Month, then again in March 2009 for Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. After that, the series was discontinued and the companion website was shut down.