News Corp. Said to Plan U.S. Sports Network to Rival ESPN

[Chrispy]

Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. (NWSA) is taking steps to start a national U.S. sports network on cable television aimed at challenging Walt Disney Co. (DIS)’s ESPN, according to people with knowledge of the situation.

News Corp. is assembling the required rights from pay-TV carriers and sports organizations, said the people, who requested anonymity because talks are private. While a final decision hasn’t been made to move forward, the company is considering converting its Fuel action-sports network to the new channel, two of the people said.

With a national network, Fox would join Comcast Corp. (CMCSA)’s NBC Sports Network and CBS Corp. (CBS)’s CBS Sports Network in challenging the dominant ESPN. News Corp. last year secured rights to the Pac-12 Conference and Big-12 Conference games and owns 20 regional sports networks. The company in October won TV rights to soccer’s World Cup in 2018 and 2022.

A national sports channel can capture higher affiliate fees from pay-TV providers such as Comcast and DirecTV (DTV), according to research firm SNL Kagan. ESPN will command $5.06 per subscriber per month this year, the most of any cable channel, SNL Kagan estimates.

That would help pay for sports rights that are growing ever more expensive. Fox, for example, holds rights to broadcast Los Angeles Dodgers games through next year, and exclusive negotiating rights to renew through the end of this year. The price is likely to go up with the team’s planned sale, for a record $2 billion, to a group led by basketball hall of fame player Magic Johnson and Guggenheim Partners Chief Executive Officer Mark Walter.
Carrier Clearance

The new channel could begin service by the end of this year, one person said. The effort is being led by David Hill, the chairman of Fox Sports, one person said.

News Corp., based in New York, has clearance from some carriers, including DirecTV, the biggest U.S. satellite television provider, two people said.

Fuel, a 24-hour action-sports network that carries mixed- martial arts fights, is available in 36 million U.S. homes, according to Fox.

Lou D’Ermilio, a spokesman for Fox Sports, had no immediate comment. Darris Gringeri, a spokesman for El Segundo, California-based DirecTV, declined to comment.

News Corp. fell 2.3 percent to $19.79 and DirecTV added 1.3 percent to $48.82 at 2:36 p.m. in New York.

To contact the reporters on this story: Andy Fixmer in Los Angeles at afixmer@bloomberg.net; Alex Sherman in New York at asherman6@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Anthony Palazzo at apalazzo@bloomberg.net

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-...to-plan-u-s-sports-network-to-rival-espn.html

 

[spiker]

For the love of God, just give me EPL broadcasts in HD.

 

[BigHouseUSA]

In an ideal, yet completely unrealistic world, this new channel, ESPN and NBC Sports, could split the Premier League coverage three ways, bigger games going on NBC/ESPN/Fox. That would be great.

 

[EmpireWF]

Right now, Fuel is akin to the UFC Network with all the content they air.

Nobody can touch ESPN though, too ingrained.

But more sports options on TV, the better...even if all these are just massive corporations swinging their dicks around.

 

[NAHSTE]

Yeah, Fox has been trying this for 20 years. Can't be done.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

I'm not sure if I like the business model of 24-hour catch all sports network anymore.

First of all, it is nearly impossible to crack the vice like ESPN has on the market.

Second, every major spots league now has their own network. Throw in Golf Channel, Tennis Channel, and Fuel (which uses up something in the neighborhood of 80% of it's hours on UFC content some weeks, making it essentially the UFC Network), along with Big Ten Network, and the fact that teams like the Yankees, Mets, University of Texas, have entered the game, and the market is being splintered. And more is coming. Let's face it, every major college conference will eventually have a network.

With all of this fractional divide of the content, what exactly will all of these new networks air? ESPN grew because the progressively went from landing deals with CBB, to CFB, to MLB, and eventually the NFL (with every other major entity at various points in between, but those were the giant steps). The end game for the league/team specific networks is to control all of their own content. If/when it becomes financially advantageous for the NFL Network to air Monday & Sunday Night Football, you can kiss ESPN & NBC goodbye.

FOX (and NBC and CBS and whoever else wants in the game) will need to secure contracts, and those are becoming increasingly harder to acquire, and it's only going to be harder when the specialized networks pick up steam, penetrate more households, and can make more money airing their own content than selling it off.

Beating ESPN at this point would be like trying to beat Coke or McDonalds. I'm not even sure anybody can be RC Cola or Arby's at this point.

 

[wr50l]

If anyone can beat ESPN it's News Corp. who as it happens have a "vice-like" grip on the UK sports television market; dwarfing ESPN. More competition should be good for you guys and I do say to News Corp.'s credit they have constantly been the driving force behind the improvement of the quality of British television.

 

[Rudi]

ESPN has been in the game too long for anyone to surpass them. If this was going to happen, it needed to take place back in the 80s when ESPN was just a wee-lad. Now there is absolutely no chance.