Fox Sports Asia

Last updated

Fox Sports Asia
Country
  • China
  • Malaysia
  • Singapore
Broadcast area
Network Fox Sports International
Programming
Languages
Picture format 1080i (HDTV)
Ownership
Owner Fox Networks Group Asia Pacific
(Disney International Operations) [1]
Sister channels
List
History
Launched
  • 21 August 1991;34 years ago (1991-08-21) (Star Sports, Fox Sports 2)
  • 1 June 1992;33 years ago (1992-06-01) (ESPN, Fox Sports)
Closed
  • 1 January 2021;4 years ago (2021-01-01) (Taiwan)
  • 1 October 2021;4 years ago (2021-10-01) (Southeast Asia & Hong Kong) [2]
Replaced by Astro SuperSport 5 (Malaysia)
Eurosport (Asia)
Premier Sports (Philippines)
SKTV Sports 4 (Vietnam)
SPOTV (Southeast Asia)
ESPN Asia (digital service via social networking sites and YouTube)
Former names
Fox Sports
  • ESPN Asia (1992–2013)
Fox Sports 2
Fox Sports 3
  • ESPN HD (until 2013)
  • Fox Sports Plus HD (2013–2014)
Links
Website global.espn.com

Fox Sports Asia (formerly ESPN Star Sports) was a pan-Asian pay television network operated by Fox Networks Group Asia Pacific, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company (Southeast Asia) Pte. Ltd. It also oversaw a version of Star Sports available in mainland China and South Korea.

Contents

The network was originally launched in 1991 as Star Sports (previously Prime Sports) and ESPN by Satellite Television Asian Region (Star TV) and ESPN International. The two companies combined their Asian operations in October 1996. News Corporation assumed full control of the venture in 2012 and relaunched the channels in two phases, in January 2013 and August 2014.

History

Early years

Star Sports

In March 1991, HutchVision announced it would jointly operate a sports channel with Denver-based Prime Network International, to be distributed in more than 30 Asian countries, reaching an audience of nearly three billion. [3]

Star Sports was first launched on 21 August 1991 as Prime Sports (體育台), and its first broadcast was the US Open tennis tournament.[ citation needed ] Operated by Hong Kong–based company Star TV, the channel was a 24-hour multi-sport television channel broadcasting in English and Chinese. It was carried on AsiaSat 1 and could be reached from the Far East to the Middle East. Star TV later regionalized the service to better serve its audience.

On 1 February 1996, the channel changed its logo from the original 1991 design to a box-type Star symbol featuring a frame, a star, and a square.

On 1 April 1999, the channel introduced its first major logo redesign, changing from a vertical to a horizontal layout, consistent with other Star TV channels.

During this time, the feed was used in both Southeast Asia and the Chinese region (Taiwan and China) until it was split into two dedicated channels on 31 March 2001.

ESPN

ESPN was part of the "Gang of Five", a consortium formed with CNN International, HBO, TVB (with TVB Superchannel), and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (with Australia Television International), to compete against Star TV in the region. The group's channels were initially transmitted via the Palapa satellite, and later also via the Apstar satellite.

ESPN opened its production facility at New Tech Park in Lorong Chuan, Singapore, in May 1995. [4]

Operations combined as ESPN Star Sports

Logo of ESPN & Star Sports (2009-2013) ESPN Star Sports logo.png
Logo of ESPN & Star Sports (2009–2013)

ESPN and Star Sports were competing with each other across Asia, [5] but their businesses were operating at a loss. In October 1996, both channels agreed to combine their operations in the region. [6] The resulting joint venture, later named ESPN Star Sports, was headquartered in Singapore (where ESPN's operations in Asia were based). [7]

On 16 January 1998, a version of Fox Sports launched in the Middle East, carried by Star Select. [8] This replaced ESPN Star Sports in the region, but the pan-Asian version was available via the AsiaSat and Palapa satellites.

Relaunch as Fox Sports

On 6 June 2012, News Corporation announced it would buy ESPN International's share in ESPN Star Sports. [9] [10] Later, Star India took over ESPN Star Sports' businesses in India [11] and relaunched its sports channels under the Star Sports brand on 6 November 2013. [12] [13]

In October 2012, Fox Football Channel was launched in Malaysia. [14] The channel ceased transmission in 2015.

On 28 January 2013, ESPN and ESPN HD were relaunched as Fox Sports and Fox Sports Plus HD in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia. [15] [16] The regional version of ESPNews was relaunched as Fox Sports News, and SportsCenter Asia was relaunched as Fox Sports Central.

On 15 August 2014, Star Sports was rebranded as Fox Sports 2, and Fox Sports Plus HD was renamed Fox Sports 3 (or Fox Sports HD in Vietnam). The corresponding HD and SD versions of all three channels were also launched. [17] [18] This rebranding did not affect much of East Asia: a version of Star Sports continued to broadcast to mainland China and South Korea, and the ESPN feed for Mainland China was renamed as Star Sports 2 on 10 January 2014.

ESPN International has since refocused on its digital business by developing online properties for football (ESPNFC), cricket (CricInfo), Formula One (ESPNF1), and Australian rugby union (ESPNscrum), [19] and established a partnership with Multi Screen Media in India (Sony ESPN TV channel until 31 March 2020), TV5 Network in the Philippines (ESPN5 programming division until 13 October 2021), Tencent in mainland China (a dedicated ESPN section at qq.com), and Mediacorp in Singapore (local ad sales only for the ESPN website through its Partner Network division).

On 31 March 2020, the website of Fox Sports Asia merged with the global ESPN website. Fox Sports Asia's social media accounts remained unaffected. [20]

On 8 March 2021, Fox Sports partnered with Emtek's OTT media service, Vidio, to make the networks available for Indonesian viewers. [21]

Closure

On 18 September 2020, Disney announced that it would shut down Fox Sports operations in Taiwan at the end of 2020. [22] It was later revealed that operations in Taiwan would end on 1 January 2021, following years of financial losses in the region. [23]

On 27 April 2021, Disney announced that the Fox Sports network, along with the rest of the Fox channels, would permanently cease operations on 1 October after 30 years of broadcasting. This move folded the former Prime Sports/Star Sports Asia and ESPN Asia channel spaces as Disney shifted focus to its streaming platform, Disney+ (or Disney+ Hotstar in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand; the launch in Vietnam had not yet been announced). [2] The last events covered by the channel were the 2021 Russian Grand Prix (Formula One), the 2021 Superbike World Championship at Circuito de Jerez, and UFC 266: Volkanovski vs. Ortega.

Prior to the shutdown, Korean sports network SPOTV acquired the rights to broadcast the remainder of the 2021 MotoGP World Championship, [24] taking over the Fox Sports network's place once its transmission went offline; this ensured the remaining MotoGP races were broadcast. [25] They also carried the Superbike World Championship. [26] Vietnam had no TV broadcaster for MotoGP until SPOTV officially launched on 24 December 2023. [27]

Hong Kong pay TV provider Now TV picked up coverage of the 2021 US Open, the remaining races of the 2021 Formula One World Championship, and future UFC fights prior to the closure of the Fox Sports network. [28] [29]

The remaining coverage of both Formula One and UFC was aired on Astro in Malaysia on Astro SuperSport 5 (launched post-closure); [30] Premier Sports from the TAP Sports network in the Philippines, which replaced Fox Sports; [31] StarHub TV and Singtel TV in Singapore (on Hub Sports and Mio Sports); [32] and TrueVisions' True Sport in Thailand. [33] Mola streamed the remaining UFC fights in Indonesia while also sub-licensing to both Singapore and Malaysia for future live fights, including Dana White's Contender Series; these had not been aired previously when Fox Sports focused on UFC main events. [34] Meanwhile, the Emtek group aired the remaining Formula One races on their Champions TV network and their OTT media service Vidio, which previously carried the Fox Sports network. [35] [36]

As reported exclusively by SportBusiness, Formula One coverage in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia (excluding Vietnam, where K+ owned the rights following the channel's closure) transferred to beIN Sports starting in 2023. [37] beIN Sports also held rights for both the Australian Open and French Open (except in Vietnam, where rights were owned by K+ and VTVcab, respectively), [38] [39] while SPOTV, which was already available across Southeast Asia (excluding Vietnam until 24 December 2023 [27] ), broadcast Wimbledon and the US Open. The extension for UFC coverage in Southeast Asia had yet to be finalized.

The John Dykes Show was announced to resume on Disney+ Hotstar in Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand, and was yet to be announced for other Disney+ territories, including Singapore and Hong Kong, as Star Originals. [40]

A few days after the closure, Disney relaunched the ESPN brand in Asia as a digital media portal through its official YouTube channel and social media pages.

Channels

Fox Football Channel logo. FoxFootballChannel.jpg
Fox Football Channel logo.

Regions

The individual regional feeds of Fox Sports channels included:

It also oversaw a version of Star Sports broadcast to mainland China and South Korea, and Star Sports 2 (formerly known as ESPN until 31 December 2014) broadcast to mainland China.[ citation needed ]

In South Korea, Fox Sports partnered with JTBC until 11 March 2020, which operated JTBC3 Fox Sports (now known as JTBC Golf&Sports). As ESPN Star Sports, it had previously partnered with MBC (MBC ESPN, now known as MBC Sports+) from 2001 until July 2010, and SBS (SBS ESPN, now known as SBS Sports) from late 2010 until 2014.[ citation needed ]

Final programming

Broadcast rights for various sports properties contain territorial limitations and in many instances, the rights indicated below may not pertain to all Asian territories in which Fox Sports operated.

Australian rules football

Boxing

Cricket

Football

Field hockey

Golf

Kickboxing

Mixed martial arts

Motorsports

Rugby

Union

League

Tennis

News

Other

Personalities

See also

References

  1. ↑ Clarke, Stewart (13 December 2018). "Disney Sets Out International Leadership Team Post-Fox Deal". Variety.
  2. 1 2 Multiple sources:
  3. ↑ "Hutch Vision to operate Asian sports channel". The Business Times. 6 March 1991. Retrieved 14 May 2024.
  4. ↑ "Three US TV networks eyeing S'pore satellite-link licence". The Straits Times. 2 December 1994. Retrieved 10 February 2024.
  5. ↑ Fabrikant, Geraldine (4 March 1996). "Broadcasters Bet on Sports As First Step in New Markets". The New York Times . Retrieved 10 January 2019.
  6. ↑ "Rival sport channels ESPN, Star TV team up together" . Ad Age . 9 October 1996. Retrieved 11 January 2019.
  7. ↑ Sullivan, Maureen (15 January 1997). "Asian TV team christens venture ESPN Star Sports". Variety . Retrieved 11 January 2019.
  8. ↑ "FOX Sports Changes Name" (Press release). STAR TV. Archived from the original on 8 May 1999. Retrieved 16 January 2019.
  9. ↑ Szalai, Georg (6 June 2012). "News Corp. to Buy Out ESPN's Stake in Asian TV Venture". The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved 8 January 2019.
  10. ↑ Steel, Emily (7 June 2012). "News Corp to take over ESPN Star Sports" . Financial Times . Retrieved 8 January 2019.
  11. ↑ "ESPN STAR Sports to be under STAR in India". Business Standard . 28 January 2013. Retrieved 8 January 2019.
  12. ↑ "Star Sports: A new logo, packaging & brand identity". Indian Television. 8 November 2013. Retrieved 10 January 2019.
  13. ↑ "Star junks ESPN brand, launches Star Sports with 6 channels and website". MxM. 6 November 2013. Retrieved 10 January 2019.
  14. 1 2 Dhillon, Rajina (9 October 2012). "ESS launches FOX Football Channel". Marketing. Retrieved 16 January 2019.
  15. ↑ Terrado, Reuben (9 January 2013). "ESPN fades off in Asia as Fox takes over". Spin.ph. Retrieved 8 January 2019.
  16. ↑ Chan, U-Gene (24 January 2013). "ESPN network to be renamed FOX Sports in Singapore, Asia". The Straits Times . Retrieved 8 January 2019.
  17. ↑ Christensen, Nic (4 July 2014). "Fox to reorganises its sports channels". Mumbrella Asia. Retrieved 8 January 2019.
  18. ↑ Valisno, Jeffrey O. (26 August 2014). "Fox completes rebranding of sports channels". BusinessWorld . Archived from the original on 8 January 2019. Retrieved 8 January 2019.
  19. ↑ Haskins, Will (17 June 2014). "ESPN Eyes Brand Revival in Asia". Media Business Asia. Retrieved 4 July 2014.
  20. ↑ "FOX Sports/ESPN Website Frequently Asked Questions". ESPN. 30 March 2020. Retrieved 8 June 2020.
  21. ↑ "Fox Sports Kini Hadir di Vidio, Ini Cara Aktifkannya". Vidio.com (in Indonesian). 6 March 2021. Retrieved 12 March 2021.
  22. ↑ "Fox Sports announces plans to end services in Taiwan". Central News Agency (Taiwan) . 18 September 2020. Retrieved 25 December 2020.
  23. ↑ "Fox Sports to shut down Taiwan channels by year end". Central News Agency (Taiwan) . 21 October 2020. Retrieved 25 December 2020.
  24. ↑ "MotoGP™ welcomes Eclat Media Group as Asian media partner". www.motogp.com (Press release). 16 September 2021. Retrieved 23 September 2021.
  25. ↑ McCullagh, Kevin (17 September 2021). "Eclat to replace Fox Sports Asia with 'lean and localised' SPOTV" . SportBusiness. Retrieved 21 September 2021.
  26. ↑ "WorldSBK partners with Eclat Media Group across Asia". www.worldsbk.com (Press release). 14 September 2021. Retrieved 23 September 2021.
  27. 1 2 "Truyền hình MyTV cung cấp độc quyền chùm kênh thể thao SPOTV tại Việt Nam". MyTV (in Vietnamese). Retrieved 13 January 2024.
  28. ↑ White, Jonathan (3 September 2021). "Now TV secures F1 and US Open rights in Hong Kong after Fox Sports Asia closes, but uncertainty remains for fans" . South China Morning Post . Retrieved 20 September 2021.
  29. ↑ White, Jonathan (7 October 2021). "Now TV confirms Formula 1 and UFC deals for Hong Kong fans" . South China Morning Post . Retrieved 14 October 2021.
  30. ↑ "3 New Sports Channels on Astro from 1 Oct 2021. Your Favourite Sports and more on Astro SuperSport 5, SPOTV and Astro Arena 2". Astro (Press release). 15 September 2021. Retrieved 27 September 2021.
  31. ↑ Terrado, Reuben (30 September 2021). "Where to watch UFC, F1 on PH TV with FOX Sports shutting down". Spin.ph . Retrieved 1 October 2021.
  32. ↑ Kwek, Kimberly (25 September 2021). "Sports fans in S'pore face anxious wait as cessation of Fox Sports channels looms". The Straits Times . Retrieved 27 September 2021.
  33. ↑ "สุดเอ็กซ์คลูซีฟ!! ทรูวิชั่นส์ ยิงสดกีฬาแบบจัดเต็ม ตลอดเดือนตุลาคม". TrueID (in Thai). 29 September 2021. Retrieved 23 October 2021.
  34. ↑ Pradana, Adhi (28 September 2021). "Mola TV Tayangkan Langsung UFC di Indonesia". idSatuNews (in Indonesian). Archived from the original on 29 September 2021. Retrieved 29 September 2021.
  35. ↑ "Grup Emtek (EMTK) Dapatkan Hak Siar F1, Kinerja Makin Ngebut | Market". Bisnis.com (in Indonesian). 8 October 2021. Retrieved 8 October 2021.
  36. ↑ "Kabar Gembira, Emtek Group Resmi Siarkan Formula 1 di Indonesia". Bola.net. 7 October 2021. Retrieved 1 November 2021.
  37. ↑ Frater, Patrick (3 October 2022). "Formula One Shifts Gears in Asia-Pacific – Global Bulletin". Variety . Retrieved 1 November 2022. Sports Business reports that pay-TV broadcaster beIN Sports is finalizing a multi-year deal beginning in 2023 reaching across most of its Asia-Pacific footprint, but excluding Australia, where Foxtel recently renewed its deal, and New Zealand.
  38. ↑ "StarHub to show all four Grand Slams, badminton's India Open". The Straits Times . 12 January 2022. Retrieved 13 January 2022.
  39. ↑ Brzoznowski, Kristin (12 January 2022). "Now TV & beIN SPORTS Pact for Australian Open, Roland-Garros". worldscreen.com. Retrieved 24 January 2022.
  40. ↑ "How to watch The John Dykes Show". 30 November 2021.
  41. ↑ "ESPN STAR Sports & Singtel Unveil ESPNEWS on mio TV" (Press release). Singtel. 18 November 2009. Retrieved 20 January 2019.
  42. ↑ Schwankert, Steven (16 August 2011). "ESPN Launches Two New Channels on Hong Kong's now TV". The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved 20 January 2019.
  43. ↑ "FOX Sports Asia on Instagram: "The ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 starts today! 🔥🏆💯 .. Follow Fox Sports Asia for the latest news and updates. ✅✅✅ .. .. .. #icc #cricket🏏…"". Instagram. Archived from the original on 26 December 2021. Retrieved 15 June 2019.
  44. ↑ "FOX+ the home of UFC® in Philippines". FOX+. Archived from the original on 4 May 2019. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
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