Fox Sports Networks
Fox Sports Networks, 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, ninety 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.
Each of the channels in the group carried regional broadcasts of sporting events from various professional, collegiate and high school sports teams, along with regional and national sports discussion, documentary and analysis programs.
Depending on their individual team rights, some Fox Sports Networks maintained overflow feeds available via subscription television providers in their home markets, which provided alternate programming when not used to carry game broadcasts that the main feed could not carry due to scheduling conflicts. Fox Sports Networks was headquartered in Houston, Texas, with master control facilities based in both Houston and Los Angeles; FSN also maintained production facilities at Stage 19 at Universal Studios Florida.
History
Beginnings
At the dawn of the cable television era, many regional sports networks vied to compete with the largest national sports network, ESPN. The most notable were the SportsChannel network, which first began operating in 1976 with the launch of the original SportsChannel in the New York City area and later branched out into channels serving Chicago and Florida; Prime Network, which launched in 1983 with Home Sports Entertainment as its charter member network and later branched out onto the West Coast as "Prime Sports"; and SportSouth, an RSN operated by the Turner Broadcasting System.On October 31, 1995, News Corporation, which ten years earlier launched the Fox Broadcasting Company, a general entertainment broadcast network that formed its own sports division in 1994 with the acquisition of the television rights to the National Football Conference of the National Football League, entered into a joint venture with TCI's Liberty Media, acquiring a 50% ownership interest in the company's Prime Sports affiliates Liberty in turn gained a stake in Fox's year-old cable channel FX. On July 3, 1996, News Corporation and Liberty Media/TCI announced that the Prime Sports networks would be rebranded under the new "Fox Sports Net" brand; the Prime Sports-branded affiliates were officially relaunched as Fox Sports Net on November 1 of that year. The first new network to come out of the partnership was Fox Sports Arizona which launched on September 7, 1996, nearly two months before the existing networks would be rebranded. That same year, Fox purchased SportSouth from Turner, and rebranded that network as Fox Sports South in January 1997.
On June 30, 1997, the Fox/Liberty joint venture purchased a 40% interest in Cablevision/NBC's sports properties including the SportsChannel America networks, Madison Square Garden, and the New York Knicks and New York Rangers professional sports franchises, a deal worth $850 million; the deal formed the venture National Sports Partners to run Fox Sports Net's national programming operations. In early 1998, SportsChannel America was integrated into the Fox Sports Net family of networks; SportsChannel Florida, however, remained as the lone SportsChannel America-branded network before it joined FSN as well in 2000 after News Corporation and Cablevision purchased Florida Panthers owner Wayne Huizenga's controlling interest in that network.
Fox ownership
In 1999, Liberty Media sold its interest in Fox Sports Net and FX to News Corp. The sale was part of a complex transaction involving a stock swap that gave Liberty an 8% interest in News Corp, making it the second largest shareholder. News Corp became the sole owner of Fox Sports Net.On July 11, 2000, Comcast purchased a majority interest in the Minneapolis-based Midwest Sports Channel and Baltimore-based Home Team Sports from Viacom. News Corporation, a minority owner in both networks, wanted to acquire them outright and integrate the two networks into Fox Sports Net. Home Team Sports had been affiliated with FSN since 1996. The company filed a lawsuit against Comcast ten days later on July 21, in an attempt to block the sale. On September 7, 2000, as part of a settlement between the two companies, Comcast traded its equity interest in Midwest Sports Channel to News Corporation in exchange for exclusive ownership of Home Team Sports.
In September 2004, Fox Sports Net became known simply as "FSN"; however, the former name remained in common use until 2010, when "Fox Sports Local" was adopted for use in referencing its regional networks. On February 22, 2005, Fox's then-parent company, News Corporation, acquired full ownership of FSN/Fox Sports Local, following an asset trade with Cablevision Systems Corporation, in which Fox sold its interest in Madison Square Garden and the arena's NBA and NHL team tenants in exchange for acquiring sole ownership of Fox Sports Ohio and Fox Sports Florida. Cablevision simultaneously gained sole ownership of Fox Sports Chicago and Fox Sports New York, and a 50% interest in Fox Sports New England ; Fox and Cablevision, however, retained joint ownership of Fox Sports Bay Area.
Affiliate realignments
Fox Sports Chicago ceased operations in June 2006, after losing the regional cable television rights to local professional teams two years earlier to the newly launched Comcast SportsNet Chicago.On December 22, 2006, News Corporation sold its interest in four Fox Sports regional networks—FSN Utah, FSN Pittsburgh, FSN Northwest and FSN Rocky Mountain—as well as its 38.5% ownership stake in satellite provider DirecTV to Liberty Media for $550 million in cash and stock, in exchange for Liberty's 16.3% stake in News Corporation. On May 4, 2009, DirecTV Group Inc. announced it would become a part of Liberty's entertainment unit, with plans to spin off certain properties into a separate company under the DirecTV name, which would operate the four acquired FSN-affiliated networks through DirecTV Sports Networks, a new division formed on November 19, 2009, upon the spin-off's completion.
On April 30, 2007, Cablevision sold its 50% interests in the New England and Bay Area networks to Comcast for $570 million; both networks became part of Comcast SportsNet, with FSN New England relaunching as Comcast SportsNet New England in July 2007 and FSN Bay Area relaunching as Comcast SportsNet Bay Area March 2008. Despite Cablevision's sale of the networks, the channels continued to use "Fox Sports Net/National Sports Partners" in its copyright tag until 2008.
On April 1, 2011, DirecTV Sports Networks rebranded its FSN regional affiliates under the Root Sports brand.
In 2012, News Corporation acquired a 49% stake in the YES Network, the regional sports network in the New York metropolitan area co-owned by Yankee Global Enterprises. It was also in that year that FSN/Fox Sports Local relocated its headquarters from the Fox Studio Lot in Los Angeles to Houston, and then re-branded to its current branding. The FSN owned-and-operated networks were spun off along with most of News Corporation's U.S. entertainment properties into 21st Century Fox on July 1, 2013. On January 25, 2014, 21st Century Fox then became the YES Networks' majority owner by purchasing an additional 31% share of it, increasing the company's ownership interest from 49% to 80%. In September 2013, the network gained the affiliation for FSN's national programming
Sale to Sinclair Broadcast Group
On December 14, 2017, The Walt Disney Company announced its intention to acquire 21st Century Fox for $52.4 billion after the spin-off of certain businesses into a new entity. While the acquisition was originally slated to include Fox Sports' regional operations, the Justice Department ordered that they be divested within 90 days of the completion of the acquisition due to the concentration of the market that ESPN would hold.Sinclair Broadcast Group was mentioned as the most likely buyer for the other FSN networks, but would need the assistance of a private equity firm to help raise the cash needed for the purchase. The group's other sports properties include Stadium—a national sports network distributed via over-the-air digital television and internet streaming, Tennis Channel, as well as Marquee Sports Network, a joint venture with the Chicago Cubs. Over 40 parties were reported to have expressed interest, including Silver Lake Partners and William Morris Endeavor in a joint deal, Charter Communications, Discovery, Amazon, Apollo Global Management, The Blackstone Group, CVC Capital Partners, Ice Cube and LL Cool J, KKR, Nexstar Media Group, Providence Equity Partners and YouTube. Due to a clause imposed on the original sale, Yankee Global Enterprises had a right of first refusal to purchase Fox's share in YES Network. Allen & Company and JPMorgan Chase, who were handling the FSN sale for Disney, asked that all bids include YES in their offers.
Fox did not bid for the channels in the first round. On November 20, 2018, Amazon, Sinclair and CVC jointly, Apollo, KKR and Tegna officially bid for the network. It was also reported that a Sinclair/CVC joint venture was the leading bidder. In December 2018, it was reported that due to the low bids, there was the possibility that the networks could be sold individually instead of as a single group, and that the banks were in talks with those who made partial bids, such as Amazon and Charter. Minnesota Twins owner Jim Pohlad was reportedly interested in his team's broadcaster Fox Sports North. Discovery CEO David Zaslav stated that the company had considered a bid, but that regional sports networks were a "very treacherous market".
In a January 2019 SEC filing, Fox Corporation stated that it no longer had any plans to bid for the channels. On January 11, 2019 CNBC reported that Apollo, Blackstone, CVC and other bidders except Sinclair backed out of the deal for the networks with the sole bidder being the Sinclair/CVC joint venture. It was also reported that the possibility of spinning out the channels as an independent company was also being considered. In February 2019, it was reported that Apollo and Sinclair had dropped out, but that Liberty Media and Major League Baseball had made offers. Later that month, it was reported that Pohlad and Detroit Pistons owner Tom Gores had joined the Liberty Media bid.
On March 8, 2019, it was reported that the Yankees had reached a deal to re-purchase Fox's share in the YES Network for $3.5 billion, with Sinclair, Amazon and The Blackstone Group holding minority shares. MLB also confirmed a $10 billion bid, seeking to use them to bolster the income of its small-market teams. It was also reported that month that Ice Cube and LL Cool J were also preparing a bid of around $15 billion. Big3 stated that it wanted to expand the channels to include programming covering "broader cultural and political topics" of local interest alongside sports. In April 2019, Big3 filed a complaint with the Department of Justice and FCC, accusing Charter Communications of attempting to "undermine" its bid by threatening to not carry the channels if it won the auction. Liberty Media owner John Malone has an ownership stake in Charter; the company denied Big3's allegations. The final round of bids were due on April 15, 2019, with bids having been in excess of $10 billion or higher. Liberty and MLB were reported to have partnered on a joint bid, Big3's bid contained $6.5 billion in debt and only $3 billion in outside funding, while Sinclair had re-entered contention in a joint bid with Apollo.
On April 26 and May 2, respectively, Fox Business Network and The Wall Street Journal reported that Sinclair was nearing an agreement to purchase the networks for $10 billion. On May 3, Sinclair officially announced that via its subsidiary Diamond Sports Group, it had agreed to purchase the networks for $10.6 billion, pending regulatory approval. At the same time, it was also revealed that Allen Media Group would hold an equity stake in the company and serve as a "content partner". Three senators called for the sale to be reviewed by the Department of Justice, citing concerns over Sinclair's political views, and that it could use the networks as leverage for carriage agreements for its broadcast television stations.
The sale was completed on August 22, 2019. The networks would continue to temporarily use the "Fox Sports" branding under a transitional license agreement with Fox Corporation; Sinclair CEO Chris Ripley stated that there were plans to eventually rebrand them under either a new name, or to "partner with a brand who wants more exposure". There were also plans to increase non-event programming, and emphasis on sports betting in its programming. In November 2019, the Sun-Sentinel reported that Fox Sports Florida was to be rebranded "within the next few months".
Due to carriage disputes, Dish Network and Sling TV dropped Fox Sports Networks in July 2019. FuboTV dropped the channels in January 2020, and YouTube TV and Hulu + Live TV followed in October 2020.
On November 4, 2020, Sinclair took a $4.23 billion write-down on the FSN purchase.