Fox Sports trying to grab bigger share of your cable bill, then beat ESPN for your dollar
When they hit the stage of a Manhattan hotel ballroom Tuesday to reveal details of their longshot plan to take on ESPN with Fox Sports 1, an all-sports channel debuting in August, one item Fox suits won’t cover is the price you’ll pay for their competitive journey.
Rupert Murdoch’s Foxies have spent nearly three years shelling out major moolah, acquiring TV rights to college football and basketball, and renewing deals with the NFL, Major League Baseball, NASCAR and UFC at big-ticket prices. They paid extra for the right to air certain games and events on FS1. Add all the production costs of a start-up venture and we’re talking serious coin.
The costs will eventually trickle down to you in the form of increased cable bills. You will feign anger. Then you will pay. You always do. The suits know you are a loyal soldier in their Army of Sports Zombies. You will be paying for something we don’t need — another sports channel.
FS1 will occupy the channel space currently held by Fox’s Speed channel, which is available in 87 million homes. The cable operators pay Fox 22 cents per subscriber per month for carriage rights to “Speed.” With the array of sports programming, both live events, yak shows, and probably a sports news operation on FS1, the Foxies will be looking for more — a lot more — per subscriber than they receive for Speed.
Put it this way: ESPN is in more than 100 million homes and gets $5.13 per subscriber per month. Fox will likely come out of the box asking cable operators to pay 90 cents to $1 per subscriber per month for FS1. Fox could charge more if it flips its “Fuel TV” into Fox Sports 2. The Foxies will be waiting major moons to glom ESPN-like dough. The faculty at Bristol Clown Community has a 30-year head start on Fox’s new entry.
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/raissman-murdoch-suits-gambling-out-fox-espn-article-1.1279503
SPEED was actually quite excellent before they made the decision to get really NASCAR-heavy with their coverage (WRC, you are sorely missed)...
Ironically, were it not for Fox's stellar coverage of soccer (a market ESPN pretty much conceded to them a decade ago), ESPN would still be in the dark ages...
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