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Country | United States |
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Broadcast area | Wisconsin Eastern Minnesota Western Upper Peninsula of Michigan Northwestern Illinois Iowa Nationwide (via satellite) |
Network | Fox Sports Networks |
Headquarters | Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S. |
Programming | |
Language(s) | English |
Picture format | 720p (HDTV) 480i (SDTV) |
Ownership | |
Owner | Diamond Sports Group (Sinclair Broadcast Group and Entertainment Studios) |
Sister channels | WVTV "CW18" & "My24" WMSN-TV WLUK-TV |
History | |
Launched | April 1, 2007 |
Replaced | FSN North (in broadcast area only) |
Former names | FSN Wisconsin (2007–2012) |
Links | |
Website | www.foxsports.com/wisconsin |
Availability (some events may air on overflow feed Fox Sports Wisconsin Plus due to event conflicts) | |
Cable | |
Charter Communications (Milwaukee) | Fox Sports Wisconsin: 31 (SD) 1309 (HD) Fox Sports Wisconsin Plus: 310 (SD) 1310 (HD) |
Charter Communications (Green Bay) | 40 (SD) |
Available on most cable systems in designated broadcast area | Consult your local cable provider or program listings source for channel availability |
Satellite | |
DirecTV | 669 Fox Sports Wisconsin (SD/HD) 669-1 Fox Sports Wisconsin Plus (SD/HD) |
IPTV | |
AT&T U-verse | Fox Sports Wisconsin: 744 (SD) 1744 (HD) Fox Sports Wisconsin Plus: 745 (SD) 1745 (HD) |
Streaming media | |
Fox Sports Go | www.foxsportsgo.com/ (U.S. cable internet subscribers only; requires login from participating providers to stream content; some events may not be available due to league rights restrictions) |
Fox Sports Wisconsin (FSWI) is an American regional sports network owned by Diamond Sports Group, and operates as an affiliate of Fox Sports Networks. Operating as the "Wisconsin" sub-feed of Fox Sports North until 2007, the channel broadcasts regional coverage of sports events throughout the state of Wisconsin, with a focus on professional sports teams based in Milwaukee. It primarily operates from a studio/office facility in downtown Milwaukee, with secondary offices and production studio/office hub based in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Fox Sports Wisconsin is available on cable providers throughout Wisconsin, extreme eastern Minnesota, the western Upper Peninsula of Michigan, northwestern Illinois, and Iowa; it is also available nationwide on satellite via DirecTV.
Fox Sports Wisconsin broadcasts 2,600 hours of locally produced programming per year and reaches more than 1.7 million homes. [1]
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The first regional sports network in the state was the Wisconsin Sports Network (unrelated to the current-day high school-focused sports publishing operation), a gametime-only network that broadcast Milwaukee Brewers baseball and Milwaukee Bucks basketball games. The channel was owned by Time Warner Cable's Milwaukee franchise and Group W. In 1996, it was taken over by the Minneapolis-based Midwest Sports Channel, which was owned by CBS owned-and-operated station WCCO-TV (channel 4) in Minneapolis and CBS Cable (which was formed following CBS' 1995 merger with Group W's corporate parent Westinghouse). Shortly afterward, MSC became an affiliate of the fledgling Fox Sports Net in the fall of 1996.
From then on until 2007, Wisconsin was served by one of three regional subfeeds of MSC/FSN North; the other two being a feed for the Twin Cities metropolitan area and a feed for the rest of Minnesota (as well as Iowa, North Dakota and South Dakota). CBS sold the network to News Corporation in 2000, ultimately rebranding as FSN North in April 2001. Despite being well out of the station's market area, MSC's late night encore of WCCO's 10:00 p.m. newscast also aired on the Wisconsin network until the Fox purchase. The network then began maintaining offices at the studios of Fox owned-and-operated station WITI (channel 6, now an affiliate of the network) in the Milwaukee suburb of Brown Deer, along with sharing limited programming with that station.
FSN North converted the Wisconsin feed into a separate channel, FSN Wisconsin. The channel launched on April 1, 2007, coinciding with the start of the 2007 Milwaukee Brewers season, originating from facilities in Milwaukee. After Fox Television Stations sold WITI to Local TV in 2008, FSN Wisconsin relocated its operations to facilities in downtown Milwaukee. As part of the national rebranding of the Fox Sports Networks in 2012, FSN Wisconsin was rebranded as Fox Sports Wisconsin.
On December 14, 2017, as part of a merger between both companies, The Walt Disney Company announced plans to acquire all 22 regional Fox Sports networks from 21st Century Fox, including Fox Sports Wisconsin. However, on June 27, 2018, the Justice Department ordered their divestment under antitrust grounds, citing Disney's ownership of ESPN. On May 3, 2019, Sinclair Broadcast Group and Entertainment Studios (through their joint venture, Diamond Holdings) bought Fox Sports Networks from The Walt Disney Company for $10.6 billion. [2] The deal closed on August 22, 2019, thus placing Fox Sports Wisconsin in common ownership with the Milwaukee and Green Bay duopolies of WVTV/WVTV-DT2, WLUK-TV/WCWF and Madison Fox affiliate WMSN. [3] On March 31, 2021, Fox Sports Wisconsin will be rebranded as Bally Sports Wisconsin, a new partnership between Sinclair Broadcast Group and Bally Corporation that will result in 18 other Regional Sports Networks being renamed to Bally Sports in their respective regions. [4]
Fox Sports Wisconsin holds the regional cable television rights to Major League Baseball games from the Milwaukee Brewers, NBA games from the Milwaukee Bucks (whose telecasts became exclusive to the network starting with the 2007–08 season) and since 2000, simulcasts most of the NHL games from the Minnesota Wild televised by Fox Sports North (usually through Fox Sports Wisconsin Plus), as well as pre-game, post-game and fan shows for all three teams. In 2018, simulcasts of Major League Soccer's Minnesota United FC matches were added to Fox Sports Wisconsin after Fox Sports North assumed that team's rights.
The channel also carries high school sports competitions sanctioned by the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association (WIAA) (the girls' and boys' state tournament final rights are held by Quincy Media and a statewide network of broadcast stations, though Fox Sports Wisconsin is allowed to carry replays of the tournament), weekend outdoor sports programming, and many of national programs distributed by Fox Sports. It also airs NCAA competitions from the Big East Conference, Big Ten Conference and the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, and a limited schedule of Marquette men's games through a sub-licensing deal with sister network Fox Sports 1 in which some games not of national interest are distributed to their regional sports network partners, CBS Sports Network and the ESPN family of networks as part of the "new" Big East's television contract [5] (Fox Sports Wisconsin acquired the partial rights to Marquette sports events from Time Warner Cable Sports (the now-defunct Spectrum Sports), a regional network available only on Time Warner systems in eastern Wisconsin, which had been carrying the games since 2006 until 2013).
From 2007 to 2011, Fox Sports Wisconsin sub-licensed a package of fifteen Milwaukee Brewers games for broadcast on Milwaukee independent station WMLW-CA (channel 41, now Me-TV owned-and-operated station WBME-CD); the Fox Sports-produced broadcasts aired outside of the Milwaukee market on Fox Sports Wisconsin, while WMLW owner Weigel Broadcasting sold advertising for those telecasts. [6] The deal was discontinued after the 2011 season due to the Brewers wanting a schedule of games entirely in high definition (until a move of WMLW's schedule to a full-power signal in August 2012, this was impossible for them to do, along with multiplexing limitations) and the launch of a secondary feed allowing live coverage of both Brewers and Bucks games, making the team exclusive to the network.
Fox Sports Wisconsin HD is a 720p high definition simulcast feed of Fox Sports Wisconsin. All Bucks and Brewers games are broadcast in HD, as well as sports and magazine programs distributed nationally by FSN. Depending on the market, Fox Sports Wisconsin Plus is also transmitted in high definition. Since 2012, the HD feed has been downscaled in letterbox on the channel's standard definition feed, as had become standard for all of Fox's cable networks.
Fox Sports Wisconsin Plus is an overflow feed that launched on April 9, 2012, and is available in both high definition and standard definition on most cable and satellite providers. The channel is mainly used to allow the network to air games that cannot air on Fox Sports Wisconsin due to events with conflicting scheduling – for example, when a Brewers game airs on Fox Sports Wisconsin, a Milwaukee Bucks game scheduled to start during the duration of the game is carried over Fox Sports Wisconsin Plus (this example often occurs from March to April (or as late as June), when the NBA and Major League Baseball (MLB) seasons overlap, although the reverse situation may occur whenever the Bucks are involved in a pre-Conference Final playoff game). It also carries national college sports rights Fox holds such as the lower-interest Big 12 Conference matchups which would usually be pre-empted locally, and are of spare interest to Wisconsin viewers.
Fox Sports Wisconsin Plus also airs Minnesota Wild hockey games simulcast from Fox Sports North that can be shown in-market when Fox Sports Wisconsin is airing a game of local interest. Due to blackout restrictions imposed by MLB and the NBA, Minnesota Twins and Timberwolves games are not broadcast on Fox Sports Wisconsin, although games from both teams are cleared to air via Fox Sports North in parts of Wisconsin. Some systems carry the Plus channel on a full-time basis, while others carry it only for game telecasts; non-game Plus programming contains a loop of national Fox Sports Networks programming such as the World Poker Tour. [7]
Fox Sports Networks (FSN), formerly known as Fox Sports Net, is the collective name for a group of regional sports channels in the United States owned by Diamond Sports Group, a joint-venture company of the Sinclair Broadcast Group and Entertainment Studios. Formed in 1996 by News Corporation, the networks were acquired by The Walt Disney Company in 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 continue 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 is due to take effect on March 31, 2021, with the networks becoming Bally Sports.
Fox Sports Sun (FSSUN), formerly Sun Sports and originally Sunshine Network, is an American regional sports network owned by Diamond Sports Group, a joint venture between Sinclair Broadcast Group and Entertainment Studios, and operates as an affiliate of Fox Sports Networks. The channel broadcasts local coverage of professional, collegiate and sporting events in the state of Florida, with a focus on professional sports teams based in Miami, Tampa and Orlando. Fox Sports Sun and sister regional sports network Fox Sports Florida are headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
The MSG Network (MSG) is an American regional cable and satellite television network, and radio service owned by MSG Networks, Inc.—a spin-off of the main Madison Square Garden Company operation.
Fox Sports South (FSS) is an American regional sports network owned by Diamond Sports Group, and operates as an affiliate of Fox Sports Networks. The network carries regional coverage of professional and collegiate sports events from across the Southern United States, along with other sporting events and programming from FSN.
Fox Sports Ohio (FSOH) is an American regional sports network owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group and is operated as an affiliate of Fox Sports Networks. The channel broadcasts regional coverage of sports events in the state of Ohio, with a focus on professional sports teams based in Cleveland and Cincinnati, which are broadcast on separate programming feeds, as well as Columbus.
WMLW-TV, virtual channel 49, is an independent television station serving Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States that is licensed to Racine. The station is owned by Chicago-based Weigel Broadcasting, as part of a duopoly with Milwaukee-licensed CBS affiliate WDJT-TV : it is also sister to two low-powered stations: Telemundo affiliate WYTU-LD and Class A MeTV owned-and-operated station WBME-CD. The four stations share studios in the Renaissance Center office complex on South 60th Street in West Allis ; WMLW-TV's transmitter is located in Milwaukee's Lincoln Park.
Fox Sports Detroit (FSD) is an American regional sports network owned by Diamond Sports Group that operates as a Fox Sports Networks affiliate. It provides coverage of local sports teams in the state of Michigan, primarily focusing on those in Metro Detroit. The network airs exclusive broadcasts of games involving the Detroit Tigers, Detroit Pistons, Detroit Red Wings, repeats of Detroit Lions preseason games, and select games from the Grand Rapids Griffins, as well as some state college and high school sports.
Fox Sports West (FSW) is an American regional sports network owned by Diamond Sports Group, a joint venture between Sinclair Broadcast Group and Entertainment Studios, and operated as part of Fox Sports Networks, along with its sister network Prime Ticket. The channel broadcasts regional coverage of professional and collegiate sports events in California, focusing primarily on teams based in the Greater Los Angeles area. Fox Sports West is available on cable providers throughout Southern California, the Las Vegas Valley and Hawaii; it is also available nationwide on satellite via DirecTV.
Fox Sports Florida (FSFL) is an American regional sports network owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, and operates as an affiliate of Fox Sports Networks. The channel broadcasts local sports coverage in the state of Florida, with a focus on professional sports teams based in Miami, Tampa and Orlando.
Fox Sports Southeast (FSSE) is an American regional sports network owned by Diamond Sports Group, a joint venture between Sinclair Broadcast Group and Entertainment Studios, and operates as an affiliate of Fox Sports Networks. Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, the channel broadcasts regional coverage of sports events throughout the southeastern United States, with a focus on professional sports teams based in Atlanta, Tennessee, and Charlotte.
MSG Plus is an American regional sports network owned by MSG Networks; it operates as a sister channel to MSG Network. The network serves the New York City metropolitan area, whose reach expands to cover the entire state of New York, Northern New Jersey, Southwestern Connecticut and Northeastern Pennsylvania; MSG Plus carries sports events from several of the New York area's professional sports franchises, as well as college sports events.
Fox Sports North (FSN) is an American regional sports network owned by Diamond Sports Group, and operates as a Fox Sports Networks affiliate. The channel broadcasts coverage of sporting events involving teams located in the Upper Midwest region, with a focus on professional and collegiate sports teams based in Minnesota.
Fox Sports Midwest (FSMW) is an American regional sports network owned by Diamond Sports Group, a joint venture between Sinclair Broadcast Group and Entertainment Studios, and operates as an affiliate of Fox Sports Networks. The channel broadcasts regional event coverage of sports teams throughout the Midwestern United States, most prominently, professional sports teams based in St. Louis, Missouri.
Fox Sports Southwest (FSSW) is an American regional sports network owned by Diamond Sports Group, and operates as an affiliate of Fox Sports Networks. The channel broadcasts regional coverage of professional, collegiate and high school sports events throughout the South Central United States. The network is headquartered in the Dallas-Fort Worth suburb of Irving, Texas, with master control hubbed at Fox Sports Networks' operations center in Houston, which houses master control operations for its regional networks in the central United States.
NBC Sports Chicago is an American regional sports network that broadcasts regional coverage of professional sports teams in the Chicago metropolitan area, as well as college sports events and original sports-related news, discussion and entertainment programming. It is branded as part of the NBC Sports Regional Networks.
Prime Ticket is an American regional sports network owned by Diamond Sports Group, a joint venture between Sinclair Broadcast Group and Entertainment Studios, and operated as part of Fox Sports Networks, along with its sister network Fox Sports West. The channel broadcasts regional coverage of professional and collegiate sports events in California, focusing primarily on teams based in the Greater Los Angeles area. Prime Ticket is available on cable providers throughout Southern California, the Las Vegas Valley and Hawaii; it is also available nationwide on satellite via DirecTV.
Fox Sports Kansas City (FSKC) is an American regional sports network owned by Diamond Sports Group, and operates as an affiliate of Fox Sports Networks. The channel broadcasts coverage of professional, collegiate, and high school sports events both within and outside the Kansas City area. It maintains offices and master control operations at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri.
Fox Sports Carolinas (FSCAR) is an American regional sports network owned by Diamond Sports Group, a joint venture between Sinclair Broadcast Group and Entertainment Studios, and operates as an affiliate of Fox Sports Networks. The channel is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Fox Sports Tennessee (FSTEN) is an American regional sports network owned by Diamond Sports Group, a joint venture between Sinclair Broadcast Group and Entertainment Studios, and operates as an affiliate of Fox Sports Networks. The channel broadcasts regional coverage of professional and collegiate sports events in the state of Tennessee, namely the Memphis Grizzlies and Nashville Predators.
Fox Sports Indiana (FSIN) is an American regional sports network owned by Diamond Sports Group, and operates as an affiliate of Fox Sports Networks. The channel broadcasts local professional and high school sports coverage throughout the state of Indiana, with a focus on professional sports teams based in Indianapolis, namely the NBA's Indiana Pacers.
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