Fox Sports 1 Update

[BEwannabe]

TNT, TBS, HBO for starters so that's NBA, Major League baseball, golf, NCAA tourney just off the top of my head. It is hard for me to imagine Murdoch not being successful in this attempt even though Time Warner has turned the offer down. Reason, Time Warner and News Corp share a large amount of shareholders and the deal is a good deal for both sides only antitrust could be at issue and I really haven't dug into the details as I don't own either equity but as an admirer of Murdoch and a BEwannnabe an interested observer.

[Jet915]

Thanks. Forgot about Turner and Time Warner being together.

[BEwannabe]

the big news of the last 24 hours is Rupert Murdoch bidding for Time Warner - FS1 would have all the content needed if successful but I don't necessarily equate more content as a good thing for Big East basketball because Big East basketball would be the lowest rated franchise Fox would own.

Time Warner rebuffed this though.

I do agree that more content isn't necessarily a good thing for Big East Basketball. Especially if FS1 got more winter content, that's the big thing to watch. If they got a NBA package, a Big Ten packaage- that's all going to be on prime spots on FS1. UFC isn't going anywhere. It's not like ESPN that has ESPN 2 as being viable- as well as ESPNU and ESPNews.

And wouldn't be shocked to see Fox see if they could get a package of NHL games quite frankly.

it's not the first time someone has told Murdoch no. Of course they said no and more content is coming to Fox 1 way or the other you can be sure of that and 10,12 or 16 Big East will still be the lowest rated franchise. This is reality and the conference needs to build the best brand they can led by Men's Basketball and I think in more circles than not the prevailing thought is there is work to be done.

[MUPanther]

The NBA deal FS1 might get will be only a Saturday night deal. The complete NLCS in 2014 will be on FS1.

[stever20]

The NBA deal FS1 might get will be only a Saturday night deal. The complete NLCS in 2014 will be on FS1.

I seriously doubt that. Between UFC and also college basketball- that's a non starter almost for sure. It would be a weeknight package.

[Michael in Raleigh]

the big news of the last 24 hours is Rupert Murdoch bidding for Time Warner - FS1 would have all the content needed if successful but I don't necessarily equate more content as a good thing for Big East basketball because Big East basketball would be the lowest rated franchise Fox would own.

This is interesting. I thought it was a done deal that Comcast, owners of NBC, NBCSN, and multiple Comcast Sports Net outlets, was buying Time Warner. So it could be News Corp/Fox vs. Comcast/NBC for the prize of Time Warner/Turner?

I don't follow this closely enough. Anyone know more about the story. And why is Time Warner for sale, anyway? Were there bad investments somewhere? If so, where?

[NYCJay]

The Comcast deal is for Time Warner Cable which is a separate business entity. The Murdoch proposition was for Time Warner Inc. (the media conglomerate) which includes the TV & Movie studios,TBS/TNT/TruTV, etc.

The Murdoch bid was for content production, the Comcast bid is about controlling distribution.

[Michael in Raleigh]

Time Warner rebuffed this though.

I do agree that more content isn't necessarily a good thing for Big East Basketball. Especially if FS1 got more winter content, that's the big thing to watch. If they got a NBA package, a Big Ten packaage- that's all going to be on prime spots on FS1. UFC isn't going anywhere. It's not like ESPN that has ESPN 2 as being viable- as well as ESPNU and ESPNews.

And wouldn't be shocked to see Fox see if they could get a package of NHL games quite frankly.

My prediction, which admittedly is based almost completely on Frank the Tank's analysis, is that the Big Ten will have its current "Tier 1" games, i.e., the ones on ESPN and not on the BTN, split between Fox and ESPN. Right now, it is set up so that ESPN gets to claim 2 to 3 home Big Ten football games per week for its own networks, while the BTN picks up the remainder. Similarly ESPN gets first dibs on a few home Big Ten games/week for hoops, with the rest on the BTN. Going forward, I think the Big Ten will keep the same number of games on the BTN, but will have Fox and ESPN share those "Tier 1," first choice games. The league will want to maximize revenue by letting Fox pony up a lot of money for some of the Big Ten games, but it will still want to maintain a presence on the "Worldwide Leader." ESPN, for better or worse, is easily the most influential media outlet on college sports, including other networks, print media like Sports Illustrated and newspapers, and online media like yahoo. They don't want to get away from that. The Big East left ESPN, but they felt the benefits easily outweighed the costs.

As for the NBA, I think that is going to be a MASSIVE bidding war. ESPN, Fox, and Turner will all try to get as much as possible, and I wouldn't be shocked if CBS and Comcast try to get it as well. The NBA is winning PR battles with positive stories like Kevin Durant's MVP speech, Lebron James' "coming home" essay, and the commissioner's stand against Donald Sterling. It seems to be more popular now that anytime since Jordan's '98 retirement from the Bulls. There are too many games for one company to get everything, which is why ESPN and Turner split the playoff package. Maybe the NBA will try to split onto even more networks the way the NFL does with CBS, Fox, NBC, ESPN, and the NFL Network. In other words, yes, I think the chance is very strong Fox will get some games on a national package, but because other networks are likely to share an NBA package, it wouldn't be a night-in, night-out package. There would still be plenty of room for the Big East in the wintertime, and the good thing is that with the NBA, there will be more and more demand for and awareness of Fox Sports 1. Win for the Big East

[Michael in Raleigh]

The Comcast deal is for Time Warner Cable which is a separate business entity. The Murdoch proposition was for Time Warner Inc. (the media conglomerate) which includes the TV & Movie studios,TBS/TNT/TruTV, etc.

The Murdoch bid was for content production, the Comcast bid is about controlling distribution.

Okay, that makes sense. Thanks!

[stever20]

I agree with you/Frank on Big Ten. They will have more games available with 2 more teams, and that probably gets added to the tier 1 package. Big Ten will maintain a presence on ESPN no matter what.

NBA is going to be absolutely crazy. I do think FS1 probably gets some thing- and it would be like a FS1 Monday Night Basketball type of thing- where it would be every Monday night a dh. Maybe a weekend component to this as well.

In terms of the Big East- we aren't going to see 7 or 8 games on FS1 in a week when NBA/Big Ten comes. Just not going to be the space. NBA/Big Ten aren't going to be coming to go on FS2. UFC isn't going anywhere. NASCAR isn't going anywhere in Feb/Mar.