Fox Sports South

Fox Sports South
Launched	1990
Network	Fox Sports Networks
Owned by	Fox (1996-present) Turner Broadcasting System (1990–1996)
Picture format	480i (SD) 720p (HD)
Country	United States
Language	English
Broadcast area	Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee
Headquarters	Atlanta, Georgia
Formerly called	FSN South (2004-2008) Fox Sports Net South (2000-2004) Fox Sports South (1996–2000) SportSouth (1990–1996)
Sister channel(s)	SportSouth Fox Sports Carolinas Fox Sports Tennessee WAGA Atlanta WHBQ Memphis
Website	foxsportssouth.com
Availability
Satellite
DirecTV	646 FS South (SD/HD) 647 FS South Plus (SD) 647-1 FS South Plus (HD) 648 FS South Plus 2 (SD) 648-1 FS South Plus 2 (HD)
Dish Network	420 FS South (SD) 5420 FS South (HD) Plus channels vary by date
Cable
Available on many cable systems	check local listings

Fox Sports South is a regional sports network that airs sports programming in the Southern United States. It is part of the larger Fox Sports Networks group of regional sports networks. The network carries professional and collegiate sports coverage from across the region, along with other sporting events and programming from FSN.

History

Fox Sports South was originally launched as SportSouth on August 29, 1990 by Turner Broadcasting System along with business partners Tele-Communications Inc. and Scripps-Howard Broadcasting. It featured the Atlanta Braves, Atlanta Hawks and Charlotte Hornets. It was purchased by News Corporation's Fox Cable group in 1996 and renamed Fox Sports South. In 2004 it became FSN South.

Fox Sports South formerly produced the Southern Sports Report in their Midtown Atlanta studios, when the "regional sports reports" were a prime focus of the collective FSN networks. Other FSN networks also received their local sports reports from the Atlanta studios, often with the same hosts (Terry Chick being the most prominent). The Southern Sports Report was discontinued in 2005, and FSN South produced a similar program, Around The South, that focuses on sports stories in and across the region. It has been replaced by FSN Final Score.

Fox Sports South's original name, SportSouth, is now the name of its sister network. Like Fox Sports South, that network (which was originally named Turner South) was originally owned by Turner and sold to Fox to become part of the FSN group.

On March 1, 2013, Fox Sports South and SportSouth announced they have picked up 45 more Atlanta Braves games, ending the team's contract with WPCH-TV.

Viewing areas

The viewing area includes Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida and Tennessee. It is, by far, the largest FSN affiliate by area and viewership. As such, the feed is often broken down into several sub-regional feeds for the purposes of adhering to the "home turf" rules belonging to the various professional leagues. For example, Memphis Grizzlies and Nashville Predators games are only seen in Tennessee, most of Kentucky, northern Mississippi, and northern Alabama, while Charlotte Bobcats games are only seen in North and South Carolina. Neither are seen in the remaining portions of Fox Sports South's coverage area, though Predators games occasionally re-air in North Carolina.

In October 2008, Fox decided to break up Fox Sports South into three separate feeds to offer more localized coverage to subscribers, dubbed Fox Sports Carolinas and Fox Sports Tennessee. FSN bills these feeds as separate networks, with their own Websites. The main Fox Sports South channel now only serves Georgia and most of Alabama, Kentucky and Mississippi. Fox Sports South has 2 overflow feeds on DirecTV, to avoid additional coverage conflicts.

Fox Sports Carolinas

Main article: Fox Sports Carolinas

Fox Sports Tennessee

Main article: Fox Sports Tennessee

Sports coverage

Pro Sports Coverage

• Atlanta Braves (MLB)
• Atlanta Hawks (NBA)
• Atlanta Dream (WNBA)

Collegiate Sports Coverage

• Southeastern Conference
• Atlantic Coast Conference
• Conference USA
• Southern Conference
• Big South Conference

Commentators

Atlanta Hawks

• Bob Rathbun: play-by-play
• Dominique Wilkins: analyst
• Andre Aldridge: sideline reporter and Hawks Live fill-in pre-game and post-game host
• Jerome Jurenovich: Hawks Live pre-game and post-game host
• Mike Glenn: Hawks Live analyst

Atlanta Braves

• Chip Caray: play-by-play
• Joe Simpson: analyst
• Tom Glavine: analyst
• Dale Murphy: analyst
• Jerome Jurenovich: Braves Live pre-game and post-game host
• Paul Byrd: Braves Live analyst
• Brian Jordan: Braves Live analyst
• Tom Hart : Reporter

Atlanta Dream

• Bob Rathbun: play-by-play
• LaChina Robinson: analyst

Branding

Fox Sports South

A logo bug appears on the top right screen during regular programming. For most programs (including nationally-televised sports) the Fox Sports logo is shown with a dark blue, rounded arrow shaped drop-down containing the word "SOUTH". The bottom of the drop-down contains a small arrow, colored light blue. During local sporting telecasts, with the exception of Atlanta Dream games, the logo changes. For Hawks basketball games, the text in the drop-down changes to "HAWKS" (so that the bug reads Fox Sports Hawks), with the arrow at the bottom of the drop-down shown in red. As for Braves baseball games, the text in the drop-down changes to "BRAVES", with the arrow at the bottom of the drop-down colored gray. These localized logo bugs are also seen during each team's Live pre- and post-game shows.

See also

• Comcast/Charter Sports Southeast
• Raycom Sports