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| cable chan 2 = ''Fox Sports 1'': Channel 501<br> ''Fox Sports 2'': Channel 502<br> ''Fox Sports 3'': Channel 503<br> ''Fox Sports News'': Channel 513
| cable chan 2 = ''Fox Sports 1'': Channel 501<br> ''Fox Sports 2'': Channel 502<br> ''Fox Sports 3'': Channel 503<br> ''Fox Sports News'': Channel 513
| iptv serv 1 = [[Xbox 360]]
| iptv serv 1 = [[Xbox 360]]
| iptv chan 1 = ''Sports Play'': Channel 507<br> ''Footy Play'': Channel 504<br> ''Footy Play+'': Channel 506
| iptv chan 1 = ''Sports Play'': Channel 507<br> ''Footy Play'': Channel 504<br> ''Footy Play+'': Channel 506<br> ''Fox Sports News'': Channel 513
| iptv serv 2 = [[Telstra]]<br>[[T-Box]]
| iptv serv 2 = [[Telstra]]<br>[[T-Box]]
| iptv chan 2 = ''Sports Play'': Channel 507<br> ''Footy Play'': Channel 504<br> ''Footy Play+'': Channel 506
| iptv chan 2 = ''Sports Play'': Channel 507<br> ''Footy Play'': Channel 504<br> ''Footy Play+'': Channel 506<br> ''Fox Sports News'': Channel 513
| iptv serv 3 = [[Foxtel on Internet TV]]
| iptv serv 3 = [[Foxtel on Internet TV]]
| iptv chan 3 = ''Sports Play'': Channel 507<br> ''Footy Play'': Channel 504<br> ''Footy Play+'': Channel 506
| iptv chan 3 = ''Sports Play'': Channel 507<br> ''Footy Play'': Channel 504<br> ''Footy Play+'': Channel 506<br> ''Fox Sports News'': Channel 513
}}
}}


Revision as of 13:24, 3 August 2012

Fox Sports
CountryAustralia
Programming
Language(s)English
Ownership
OwnerFOX SPORTS AUSTRALIA Pty Limited

Fox Sports is an Australia group of sports channels. They are owned by FOX SPORTS AUSTRALIA Pty Limited (known as Premier Media Group until February 2012),[3][4] which is owned by News Corporation and Consolidated Media Holdings. Its main competitors are ESPN, which has little local content and the free-to-air digital channel One.

News Corporation controls the American version of Fox Sports, the Brazilian version, BandSports and the main pay-television sports network in the United Kingdom Sky Sports.

History

Fox Sports started life as the Premier Sports Network (later just 'Premier Sports') as the only fully operational local channel at the launch of Australia's first pay-television service, Galaxy.[1] Premier Sports' backers included American company Prime International, which was later to become part of Liberty Media.

The service was launched at 4pm 26 January 1995 in Sydney and made a name for itself, securing the rights to Australia's cricket tour of the West Indies. Previously Australian cricket tours had been covered on the Nine Network on free-to-air, and Nine tried to stop the broadcast under Australia's 'anti-siphoning' rules, which state that certain popular sporting events cannot be screened exclusively on pay television. PSN signed a deal with Network Ten to share the broadcast rights.

When Foxtel launched its cable service later that year, PSN was included as part of the package. Between 1995 and 2010, Fox Sports aired National Basketball League (NBL) games. On 1 March 1996, PSN was relaunched as Fox Sports Australia, to coincide with the new Super 12 rugby union competition and the proposed launch of the Super League.


In 1997 a secondary channel was launched on Foxtel to carry broadcasts of the new Super League competition. Fox Sports and its chief competitor, Sports Australia shared the rights to NRL broadcasts as a result of the legal settlement in the Super League war. The channel on Foxtel was later relaunched as Fox Sports Two, at first broadcasting from Friday through Monday each week, and later expanding to a full 24-hour, 7-day service in 2002.

When Optus Vision dropped the C7 Sport service in March 2002, they started carrying the Fox Sports channels. These were referred to by Optus as "Optus Sports 1" and "Optus Sports 2" in Optus promotional material; on-air programming referred to the channels as simply "Sports One" and "Sports Two", although programming such as the nightly Fox Sports News bulletins retained the Fox name. Optus dropped the "Optus Sports" name in October 2002.

Fox Sports Two is generally used to cover bigger events that require large amounts of air time, such as the 1998 Winter Olympics, Grand Slam tennis tournaments, and the 2004 European Football Championship.

During the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Fox Sports carried an additional eight channels dedicated to Games events. These were available to customers at an additional charge.

Fox Sports has been the exclusive broadcaster of the Hyundai A-League since its first season in 2005. And in 2006, an A$ 120 m deal between the FFA and Fox Sports was reached after the end of the first season. Under the deal, Fox Sports will have exclusive rights from 2007 to all Socceroos home internationals, all A-League and Asian Cup fixtures, World Cup qualifiers through the AFC, and all AFC Champions League matches.

The deal to cover the A-league live and exclusive has reaped big rewards for Fox Sports, its ratings were very strong in the 2006-07 season and the 2007 A-league grand final became at the time, Fox Sports highest ever rating event.[5]

Ratings for football (soccer) have generally been very good. The Socceroos first game of the 2007 AFC Asian Cup, attracted 345,000 viewers,[6] while their Quarter final drew an average of 419,000[7] - at the time, an all time record for Australian Pay TV. This record was broken on 1 April 2009, when the Socceroos defeated Uzbekistan to put them very close to qualification for the 2010 FIFA World Cup - this match was watched by an average of 431,000 people.[8]

In 2007, Fox Sports reached a deal to broadcast 4 games live and exclusive from the AFL each week. This includes the exclusive only Sunday twilight match. In addition they will broadcast Friday night games live into New South Wales and Queensland via channel 518 at no extra charge - normally used for pay-per-view service Main Event. When channel 518 a is used in this way it is promoted as Fox Sports Plus on-air.

The channel is being used increasingly to show live events when Fox Sports has a clash involving its main 3 channels - for example on Saturday 17 March 2007 Fox Sports broadcast a match from the 2007 Cricket World Cup (Ireland v Pakistan) live on 518 - as it was committed to Football, Rugby Union and another cricket match on its main 3 channels.

In 2010 Fox Sports coverage of National Rugby League games held 73 out of the top 100 programs of any type aired Foxtel.

Fox Sports News

Main article: Fox Sports News

Channels

  • Fox Sports 1
  • Fox Sports 2
  • Fox Sports 3
  • Fox Footy
  • Sports Play powered by Fox Sports (available on Xbox 360, Telstra T-Box, and Foxtel on Internet TV)[9][10]
  • Sports Play+ powered by Fox Sports (available on Xbox 360, Telstra T-Box, and Foxtel on Internet TV)
  • Footy Play powered by Fox Sports (AFL channel available on Xbox 360, Telstra T-Box, and Foxtel on Internet TV)[11][12]
  • Fox Sports +: The Main Event channel is used as an "overflow" channel when multiple live sporting events need to be broadcast. This includes Friday Night AFL in New South Wales, Queensland and Canberra and Saturday Nights in New South Wales (excluding the Wagga Wagga market) and Canberra. It was also used nationwide for a Socceroos game in June 2007. And often when the Premier League has multiple games on the one night, although usage in this capacity is rare now that the "Viewer's Choice" system of showing multiple matches on one channel through multi-casting (The "Red Button") is used. Unlike the AFL, the NRL is not broadcast into Southern Australia through Fox Sports Plus on Friday nights, leaving its' Southern Australian fans having to wait until at least after midnight for a replay of the match.
  • Fox Sports News
  • FUEL TV
  • SPEED
  • Fox Sports 1 HD
  • Fox Sports 2 HD
  • Fox Sports 3 HD
  • Foxtel 3D

Programming

Original programming

  • NRL on FOX
  • The Back Page
  • Fox Sports FC
  • The Rugby Club
  • Inside Cricket
  • Starting 5
  • NRL Teams
  • PGA Golf Show
  • Super 14 Extra Time
  • The League Lounge

Sports/competitions televised by Fox Sports (in 2012)

Football (soccer)

Baseball

Combat sports

Cricket

Golf

Gridiron (American football)

Ice Hockey

Rugby League

  • National Rugby League (5 games a week live and Exclusive. When 2 games are played on a Saturday at 7:30pm AEST the second game is usually available through the Viewers Choice application live and replayed at 9:30)
  • Toyota Cup

Rugby Union

Tennis

Availability

Fox Sports is available nationally and is available on Foxtel's My Sport package, Optus featuring Foxtel's Total Sport package and Austar.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Bertolus, Phil (2 February 1995). "At home with Pay TV". The Age Green Guide. Melbourne, Australia: Fairfax Media. p. 1. Retrieved 27 January 2010.
  2. ^ Ratings Week 16 (13/04/2008 - 19/04/2008)
  3. ^ http://www.foxsports.com.au/about-us
  4. ^ http://www.tvtonight.com.au/2012/02/premier-media-changes-name-to-fox-sports-australia.html
  5. ^ "Big Audience For A-league Final".
  6. ^ "Soccer boots big league". The Sydney Morning Herald. 10 July 2007.
  7. ^ "Japan Game a TV Record".
  8. ^ blogs.crikey.com.au
  9. ^ http://www.foxsports.com.au/about-us
  10. ^ https://www.foxtel.com.au/internettv/packages/default.htm
  11. ^ http://www.foxsports.com.au/about-us
  12. ^ https://www.foxtel.com.au/internettv/packages/default.htm
  13. ^ "Arise Sons of the Desert".

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fox_Sports_(Australia)&oldid=505576053"