Fox Sports Networks (FSN), formerly known as Fox Sports Net, was the collective name for a group of regional sports channels in the United States. Formed in 1996 by News Corporation, the networks were acquired by The Walt Disney Company on March 20, 2019, following its acquisition of 21st Century Fox. A condition of that acquisition imposed by the U.S. Department of Justice required Disney to sell the regional networks by June 18, 2019, 90 days after the completion of its acquisition. Disney subsequently agreed to sell the networks to Sinclair; the transaction was completed on August 22, 2019. The networks continued to use the Fox Sports name only under a transitional license agreement while rebranding options were explored. A rebranding cross-partnership with Bally's Corporation took effect on March 31, 2021, and the networks were rebranded as Bally Sports, ending the Fox Sports Networks branding after 25 years.
The original incarnation of News Corporation was an American multinational mass media corporation controlled by media mogul Rupert Murdoch and headquartered at 1211 Avenue of the Americas in New York City. Prior to its split in 2013, it was the world's largest media company in terms of total assets and the world's fourth largest media group in terms of revenue, and News Corporation had become a media powerhouse since its inception, dominating the news, television, film, and print industries.
Ziff Davis, Inc. is an American digital media and internet company. First founded in 1927 by William Bernard Ziff Sr. and Bernard George Davis, the company primarily owns technology- and health-oriented media websites, online shopping-related services, internet connectivity services, gaming and entertainment brands, and cybersecurity and martech tools. Previously the company was predominantly a publisher of hobbyist magazines.
Cisco Videoscape was a majority owned subsidiary of News Corp, which develops software for the pay TV industry. NDS Group was established in 1988 as an Israeli start up company. It was acquired by Cisco in 2012 before being sold back to the private equity company Permira in 2018 for US$1 billion. The company is currently headquartered in Staines, United Kingdom.
Myspace is a social networking service based in the United States. Launched on August 1, 2003, the site was the first social network to reach a global audience and had a significant influence on technology, pop culture and music. The site played a critical role in the early growth of companies like YouTube and created a developer platform that launched the successes of Zynga, RockYou and Photobucket, among others. From 2005 to 2009, Myspace was the largest social networking site in the world.
News Corp Australia is an Australian media conglomerate and wholly owned subsidiary of the American News Corp. News Corp Australia employs more than 8,000 staff nationwide and approximately 3,000 journalists however News Corp Australia has closed approximately 100 newspapers and cut approximately 500 jobs in Australia since 2019.
Photobucket is an American image hosting and video hosting website, web services suite, and online community. Photobucket hosts more than 10 billion images from 100 million registered members. Photobucket's headquarters are in Denver, Colorado. The website was founded in 2003 by Alex Welch and Darren Crystal and received funding from Trinity Ventures. It was acquired by Fox Interactive Media in 2007. In December 2009, Fox's parent company, News Corp, sold Photobucket to Seattle mobile imaging startup Ontela. Ontela then renamed itself Photobucket Inc. and continues to operate as Photobucket.
Intermix Media, Inc. is an American Internet marketing company that owned the MySpace social network.
IGN is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa district and is headed by its former editor-in-chief, Peer Schneider. The IGN website was the brainchild of media entrepreneur Chris Anderson and launched on September 29, 1996. It focuses on games, films, anime, television, comics, technology, and other media. Originally a network of desktop websites, IGN is also distributed on mobile platforms, console programs on the Xbox and PlayStation, FireTV, Roku, and via YouTube, Twitch, Hulu, and Snapchat.
Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world.
Thomas Anderson is an American technology entrepreneur and co-founder of the social networking website Myspace, which he founded in 2003 with Chris DeWolfe. He was later president of Myspace and a strategic adviser for the company. Anderson is popularly known as "Tom from Myspace", "Myspace Tom" or "My friend, Tom" because he would automatically be assigned as the first "friend" of new Myspace users upon the creation of their profiles.
Local TV LLC was a television broadcasting company owned by Oak Hill Capital Partners which operated 20 television stations in the United States. The group was formed in 2006 by the acquisition of nine television stations owned by The New York Times Company, and grew further with the acquisition of eight former Fox owned-and-operated stations from Fox Television Stations, and a wide partnership with Tribune Broadcasting to provide management services for the stations.
Brad Greenspan is an internet entrepreneur best known for overseeing eUniverse’s launch of Myspace.com in August 2003.
Flektor was a web application that allowed users the ability to create and “mashup” their own content and share it via email, on social networking websites MySpace, Facebook, Blogger, Digg, eBay or on personal blogs. The company’s website (Flektor.com) launched on April 2, 2007 and over 40,000 people began utilizing its features just one month later. Flektor closed down in January 2009.
The second incarnation of News Corporation, stylized as News Corp, is an American mass media and publishing company headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It was formed on June 28, 2013, following a spin-off of the media outlets of the original News Corporation as 21st Century Fox (21CF). Operating across digital real estate information, news media, book publishing, and cable television, News Corp's notable assets include Dow Jones & Company, News UK, News Corp Australia, REA Group, Realtor.com, and book publisher HarperCollins.
Fox Corporation is an American multinational mass media company headquartered at 1211 Avenue of the Americas in New York City. Incorporated in Delaware, it was formed on March 19, 2019, as a result of the acquisition of 21st Century Fox by The Walt Disney Company, which was closed on March 20. The company is controlled by the Murdoch family via a family trust with 39.6% ownership share.
Fox Entertainment Group was an American entertainment company specialised in filmed entertainment owned by 21st Century Fox. Following the acquisition of 21st Century Fox by Disney, the group's assets were folded into various Disney units. The film studios 20th Century Fox, Fox Searchlight Pictures and Blue Sky Studios were transferred to Walt Disney Studios, whilst Fox Star Studios transferred to Walt Disney Direct-to-Consumer & International.
Bally's Corporation is a gaming, betting, and interactive entertainment company headquartered in Providence, Rhode Island. It owns and operates 15 casinos across ten states, a horse track in Colorado, and online sports betting operations in 14 states. Additionally, the company owns the sports betting platform Bet.Works, daily fantasy sports operator Monkey Knife Fight, and SportCaller, a free-to-play game provider.
The Bally Sports Regional Networks are a group of regional sports networks in the United States owned by Diamond Sports Group, a joint-venture company of the Sinclair Broadcast Group and Entertainment Studios. The naming rights to the network were sold to casino operator Bally's Corporation.
