Fox Sports (Australia)

Last updated

Fox Sports
Fox Sports logo1.svg
Country Australia
Stations Fox Sports News (500)
Fox Cricket (501)
Fox League (502)
Fox Sports 503 (503)
Fox Footy (504)
Fox Sports 505 (505)
Fox Sports 506 (506)
Fox Sports More+ (507)
Fox Sports 508 (508)
Fox Sports UHD1 (591)
Fox Sports UHD2 (592)
Fox Sports UHD3 (593)
Fox Sports UHD4 (594)
Headquarters Gore Hill
Programming
Language(s) English
Picture format 576i (SDTV) 16:9
1080i (HDTV) 16:9
4K (UHDTV) 16:9
Ownership
Owner Fox Sports Pty Limited
Parent Foxtel [1]
History
Launched26 January 1995
Former namesPremier Sports (prior to 19 February 1996)
Links
Website foxsports.com.au

Fox Sports Australia Pty Limited (formerly Premier Media Group Pty Limited) is the division of Foxtel that owns and operates the Fox Sports television networks and digital properties in Australia. The group operates nine Fox Sports Channels as well as Fox Sports News, Fox Cricket, Fox League, Fox Footy, Watch AFL and Watch NRL. Fox Sports channels such as Fox Netball are available via Foxtel or Kayo. The group's main competitors are beIN Sports, ESPN, Optus Sport and Stan Sport. Unlike The American Fox Sports, the group is not owned directly by the Fox Corporation. However News Corp which holds a 65% stake in Foxtel is Fox Corporation's sister company.

Contents

History

Early years

Launch

Fox Sports started life as the Premier Sports Network (later just Premier Sports) as the only fully operational local channel at the launch of Australia's first pay-television service, Galaxy. [2] Premier Sports' backers included American company Prime International, which later became part of Liberty Media. The service was launched at 16:00 on 26 January 1995 in Sydney, and made a name for itself, securing the rights to Australia's cricket tour of the West Indies. [2] Previously Australian cricket tours had been covered on the Nine Network on free-to-air, and Nine tried to stop the broadcast under Australia's anti-siphoning rules, which state that certain popular sporting events cannot be screened exclusively on pay television. PSN signed a deal with Network 10 to share the broadcast rights.

Foxtel launch

When Foxtel launched its cable service later that year, PSN was included as part of the package. Between 1995 and 2010, Fox Sports aired National Basketball League (NBL) games. On 1 March 1996, PSN was relaunched as Fox Sports Australia, to coincide with the new Super 12 rugby union competition and the proposed launch of the Super League.

In 1997 a secondary channel was launched on Foxtel to carry broadcasts of the new Super League competition. Fox Sports and its chief competitor, Sports Australia shared the rights to NRL broadcasts as a result of the legal settlement in the Super League war. The channel on Foxtel was later relaunched as Fox Sports Two, at first broadcasting from Friday through Monday each week, and later expanding to a full 24-hour, 7-day service in 2002.

2000s

Optus launch

When Optus Vision dropped the C7 Sport service in March 2002, they started carrying the Fox Sports channels. These were referred to by Optus as "Optus Sports 1" and "Optus Sports 2" in Optus promotional material; on-air programming referred to the channels as simply "Sports One" and "Sports Two", although programming such as the nightly Fox Sports News bulletins retained the Fox name. Optus dropped the "Optus Sports" name in October 2002.

Fox Sports Two was generally used to cover bigger events that require large amounts of air time, such as the 1998 Winter Olympics, Grand Slam tennis tournaments, and the 2004 European Football Championship. It now specialises as a 24/7, dedicated Rugby league channel, Fox League.

During the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Fox Sports carried an additional eight channels dedicated to Games events. These were available to customers at an additional charge.

Fox Sports was the exclusive broadcaster of the A-League from its first season in 2005 until 2020. In 2006, an A$120 million deal between the Football Federation Australia and Fox Sports was reached after the end of the first season. Under the deal, Fox Sports had exclusive rights from 2007 to all Socceroos home internationals, all A-League and Asian Cup fixtures, World Cup qualifiers through the Asian Football Confederation, and all AFC Champions League matches.

The deal to cover the A-league live and exclusive reaped big rewards for Fox Sports, its ratings were very strong in the 2006-07 season and the 2007 A-league grand final became at the time, Fox Sports' highest ever rating event. [3]

Ratings for football have generally been very good. The Socceroos first game of the 2007 AFC Asian Cup, attracted 345,000 viewers, [4] while their quarter-final drew an average of 419,000 [5] – at the time, an all-time record for Australian Pay TV. This record was broken on 1 April 2009, when the Socceroos defeated Uzbekistan to put them very close to qualification for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. This match was watched by an average of 431,000 people. [6]

In 2007, Fox Sports reached a deal to broadcast 4 games live and exclusive from the AFL each week. This includes the exclusive only Sunday twilight match. In addition they will broadcast Friday night games live into New South Wales and Queensland via channel 518 at no extra charge – normally used for pay-per-view service Main Event. When channel 518 is used in this way it is promoted as Fox Sports Plus on-air.

The channel is being used increasingly to show live events when Fox Sports has a clash involving its main 3 channels. On Saturday 17 March 2007, for example, Fox Sports broadcast a match from the 2007 Cricket World Cup (Ireland v Pakistan) live on 518, as it was committed to football, rugby union and another cricket match on its main 3 channels.

2010s

In 2010 Fox Sports coverage of National Rugby League games held 73 out of the top 100 programs of any type aired on Foxtel. In February 2012, the Premier Media Group changed its name to Fox Sports Pty Limited. [7]

In February 2012, Premier Media Group changed its name to Fox Sports, with CEO Patrick Delany explaining "The change from Premier Media to Fox Sports provides a stronger reflection of the core business of the company in its name, which is, and will continue to be, sport."

On 2 November 2012, News Corp took control of Consolidated Media Holdings after a $2 billion merger was approved by the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission, Federal Court and Consolidated Media Holding shareholders, making News Corp 100% owner of Fox Sports Pty Ltd. [8] In April 2018 News Corp Australia moved the ownership of the company to one of its subsidiaries Foxtel a joint venture with Telstra. [9]

Fox Sports logo used from 2008 until 2013 Fox Sports Australia Logos.svg
Fox Sports logo used from 2008 until 2013

On 5 March 2013, Fox Sports unveiled its new headquarters at Gore Hill in Sydney. It was announced that the main studio would be named the Clive Churchill Studio after rugby league immortal Clive Churchill, as the studio will house NRL coverage. Technical innovations were the main highlight, with CEO Patrick Delany unveiling the FoxKopter, the FoxMobile Segway, Ref Cam and Cornerpost Cam. Fox Sports also launched a new corporate logo in line with its global affiliate broadcasters. [10] [11]

On 3 September 2014, Fox Sports announced that SPEED and Fuel TV would be rebranded as Fox Sports 4 and Fox Sports 5 on 3 November 2014, of which both will be available in HD. In addition, it was announced that FOX Sports News would launch a HD feed on the same day, taking FOX Sports' suite to 7 channels, all available in HD. [12] [13]

On 23 February 2017, Fox Sports More+, a new channel for live, pop-up events was launched.

Fox Sports News

Channels

Former channels

Programming

Current programming

Former programming

Sports/competitions televised by Fox Sports

Current rights

Australian rules football

  • Australian Football League Premiership Season (Broadcasts three matches live during most weekends of the regular season whenever sister channel Fox Footy, is screening another LIVE match at the same time. Fox Sports occasionally screens other programming such as magazine and panel shows that are produced and broadcast by Fox Footy.

Combat sports

Cricket

Darts

Field hockey

Golf

Motorsport

Formula racing

Open wheel

Stock Cars

Touring Cars

Sportscars

Drag racing

Bikes

Rally

Speedway

Motocross

Netball

Rugby league

Surfing

Ten-pin bowling

Former Rights

Baseball

Basketball

Ice hockey

Motorsport

Rally

Netball

Rugby union

Soccer

Tennis

Availability

Fox Sports is available nationally and is available on Foxtel's My Sport package and Optus featuring Foxtel's Total Sport package.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fox Soccer</span> Television specialty channel specializing in soccer

Fox Soccer was an American television specialty channel specializing in soccer, owned by 21st Century Fox, which operated from 1997 to 2013. It formerly broadcast rugby and Australian rules football, but in its final years it was devoted strictly to soccer.

Foxtel is an Australian pay television company—operating in cable television, direct broadcast satellite television, and IPTV streaming services. It was formed in April 2018, superseding an earlier company from 1995. The service was established as a 50/50 joint venture between News Corporation and Telstra, with News Corp and Telstra holding 65% and 35% ownership shares respectively.

Optus Television is the cable television division of Australian telecommunications company Optus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">C7 Sport</span> Television channel

C7 Sport was a pay-TV service in Australia, owned and run by Seven Network. The service was carried on the Austar and Optus Vision pay-TV networks between 1995 and 2002. Seven unsuccessfully pursued court action against competitors, seeking damages of $480 million, but lost the case and was described by the judge as exhibiting "more than a hint of hypocrisy" in regard to the issue of price-ramping of broadcast rights.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SuperSport (South African broadcaster)</span> South African sports television channel

SuperSport is a South African-based group of television channels carried on the DStv & Canal+ satellite platforms alongside the GOtv terrestrial platform and Showmax Pro for live sports programming. It provides sports content in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya and many other African countries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Simon Hill</span>

Simon Hill is an English football commentator based in Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fox Footy</span> Australian subscription television channel

Fox Footy is an Australian rules football subscription television channel dedicated to screening Australian rules football matches and related programming. It is owned by Fox Sports Australia operated out of its Melbourne based studios and available throughout Australia on Foxtel, and Optus Television. The channel is a revival of the former Fox Footy Channel, which was in operation between 2002 and 2006. The channel recommenced prior to the 2012 AFL season after a new broadcast agreement was reached between the former Premier Media Group, Austar, Foxtel and the Australian Football League (AFL).

ESPN Australia is the Australian division of ESPN, part of the ESPN International grouping. It is offered in Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and the Pacific Islands.

There are several sports broadcasting contracts in Australia.

In the United States, sports are televised on various broadcast networks, national and specialty sports cable channels, and regional sports networks. U.S. sports rights are estimated to be worth a total of $22.42 billion in 2019, about 44 percent of the total worldwide sports media market. U.S. networks are willing to pay a significant amount of money for television sports contracts because it attracts large amounts of viewership; live sport broadcasts accounted for 44 of the 50 list of most watched television broadcasts in the United States in 2016.

Sports broadcasting contracts in New Zealand include:

Sky Sport is a group of sports-oriented television channels operated by New Zealand's satellite pay-TV company, Sky.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fox Soccer Plus</span> American sports-based television channel

Fox Soccer Plus is an American sports channel dedicated to soccer and rugby league football. Launched in 2005 by the Irish sports broadcaster Setanta Sports to offer live and tape-delayed mainstream sports events in the United States and Caribbean, it was rebranded on March 1, 2010, as a spin-off of the now-defunct Fox Soccer after its owner News Corporation acquired the channel and its coverage rights from Setanta in January 2010.

Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group, and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It has played a major role in the increased commercialisation of British sport since 1991, and has sometimes played a large role inducing organisational changes in the sports it broadcasts, most notably when it encouraged the Premier League to break away from the Football League in 1992.

beIN Sports is a Qatari multinational network of sports channels owned and operated by the Qatari media group beIN. The network has played a major role in the increased commercialization of Qatari sports. Its chairman is Nasser Al-Khelaifi, and its CEO is Yousef Obaidly.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fox Sports (Asian TV network)</span> Defunct Southeast Asian pay television network

Fox Sports Asia was a pan-Asian pay television network broadcasting in Asia, operated by Fox Networks Group Asia Pacific, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company Pte. Ltd. It also oversaw a version of Star Sports available in Mainland China and South Korea. Originally launched in early 1990s as Star Sports and ESPN by Satellite Television Asian Region and ESPN International respectively, both parties agreed to combine their operations in Asia in October 1996. News Corporation took the full control of the venture in 2012, and relaunched the channels in two phases in January 2013 and August 2014, respectively.

Optus Sport is an Australian group of sports channels, owned by Optus launched on 13 July 2016. The network was launched after Optus outbid the incumbent Foxtel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fox League</span> Australian subscription television channel

Fox League is an Australian subscription television channel dedicated to screening rugby league matches and related programming. It is owned by Fox Sports Pty Limited and is available throughout Australia on Foxtel. The channel was launched on 27 February 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fox Cricket</span> Australian subscription television channel

Fox Cricket is an Australian subscription television channel dedicated to screening cricket matches and related programming. It is owned by Fox Sports Pty Limited and is available throughout Australia on Foxtel. The channel was launched on 17 September 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kayo Sports</span> Australian sports streaming service

Kayo Sports is an over-the-top video streaming subscription service available in Australia, owned by Streamotion. The service offers sports live and on demand from Fox Sports, ESPN and Racing.com.

References

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  2. 1 2 Bertolus, Phil (2 February 1995). "At home with Pay TV". The Age Green Guide . Melbourne: Fairfax Media. p. 1. Retrieved 27 January 2010.
  3. "Big Audience For A-league Final". Archived from the original on 30 December 2012.
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  5. "Japan Game a TV Record". Archived from the original on 28 September 2007.
  6. "Crikey – On politics, media, business, the environment and life". Archived from the original on 15 July 2011. Retrieved 2 April 2009.
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  8. "News Limited seals pay TV deal after Federal Court approves CMH takeover". The Australian . 2 November 2012. Retrieved 22 January 2013.
  9. "Foxtel and Fox Sports complete merger". 3 April 2018.
  10. Knox, David (6 March 2013). "FOX Sports launches new HQ TV Tonight". TV Tonight. Retrieved 19 March 2013.
  11. "Fox Sports unveils fresh new look, leading technology ahead of exciting winter season The Cou". The Courier Mail. 6 March 2013. Retrieved 19 March 2013.
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  16. "Suncorp Super Netball 2022: The Action Heats Up Next Month On FOX SPORTS!". Foxtel. 23 February 2022.
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  24. 1 2 UFC Fight Week foxtel.com.au [ dead link ]
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