The Sports Business Journal* reports that Fox is restructuring its channels as it plans to unveil two new sports networks later in 2013. In addition, FX will no longer carry sports programming.
The news of a Fox Sports 1 was known for a while but it was not until Fox filed a trademark application for Fox Sports 2 this past November that a second network would be planned. Fuel TV will be repackaged into the second Fox network while the Speed Channel will land on Fox Sports 1.
Similar to ESPN and ESPN2, the Fox Sports channels will share content with the larger events occurring on Fox Sports 1. In comparison, the Speed Channel is distributed to 81 million homes while Fuel TV is available in 37 million homes.
The decision to include a second channel is based on the realization that it had acquired enough content for two channels. Soccer and Fox’s FIFA World Cup rights in 2018 and 2022 seem to be the main driver.
*SBJ requires a subscription
Payout Perspective:
For all of the praises of sustained positive ratings for Fuel TV, the article points to the inability to grow Fuel as a reason to repackage the network. In 2012, Fuel TV and Fox Soccer were two of the three lowest rated Nielsen-rated cable networks in prime time. Its Fox’s hope that converting Fuel to a network with broader programming will help drive distribution.
We will see what this means for the UFC. It recently switch airing its televised prelims to FX from Fuel TV. It appears that the restructuring will mean that prelims would land on one of the two new Fox Sports networks. There has been no word on whether TUF would move to the Fox Sports network or remain on FX as it can be categorized as reality television.
The restructure could help the UFC in the long run but may hurt them in the short term. Eliminating FX from the mix of networks to show the UFC hurts its opportunity to showcase its product to a broader audience. Elimination of UFC Prelims and other live events (i.e., UFC on FX) would hurt its chances of appealing to a broader audience that may eventually purchase its PPVs. But, if the new Fox Sports networks are a success and can grow in distribution, the UFC can be an anchor in providing content for Fox.
Boy, that is great! Now I can watch all of my favorite UFC programming in ultra low-def on FuelTV. Dish Meh-twork doesn’t offer it in HD.
Demise… On the horizon
Four FOX Shows and the rest on channels that nobody watches or even has.
Bellator is regularly on a channel (Spike 100 Million homes) that only has 15 million less than regular FOX.
Yes, I think the UFC made a big mistake switching. Sure FOX runs commercials for the UFC but people don’t watch commercials anymore.
I also get the feeling that Bellator will pay for a one-off event between Tito Ortiz and Frank Shamrock which would bring in over 2 million viewers at a cheap price.
Fox Sports 1 will have MLB, Nascar, College football (Pac 12, Big TEN, Big 12) College Basketball (Pac 12 and Catholic 7) and the UEFA Champions League and FIFA World Cup clearly it”s going to get much larger channel.
What does Spike have ? Impact Wrestling and Manswers?
They are also planning a daily Sports Center style show, which will obviously feature upcoming UFC’s top fights, even if Sports Center chooses to ignore said fight.
Dude you do realize they have even done the re-branding yet? Speed is in 80 million homes nad will be re-branded as a sports network with baseball, soccer, college football, Nascar, UFC, like ESPN.
Fuel will be turned into an ESPN 2 type network which will increase the number of homes.
This is the UFC being on a real sports ntework that is being bulit to compete with ESPN over the next 10 years.
This is great news in the long term being surrounded by real sports on a real sports network. UFC felt out of place on FX, being on a highly respected network like that lowered their numbers from shitty Spike so its not like being on FX was great for them.
Being on a sports network with a big baseball game as a lead in could be better than a rerun of Spiderman 2. Your demo is male sports fans and they are gonna be on a sports network.
Wait, do you not realize that most likely distribution will forever be stunted?
Comcast is the biggest cable distributor in the country and they are focused on building up NBCSports. Why would they extend distribution to a competitor that currently does horrible ratings?
Why?
Because it will also feature massive sports like MLB, NASCAR and College Football, those can over run against each other, hence the need for a second channel.
Comcast might not mind pissing off a niche sport like MMA’s fans but they wont want to do the same to Baseball and College Football fans.
here’s a story from a few months ago, basically saying that FS1 is the closest competitor to ESPN already, without even launching yet.
http://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2012/10/is-fox-sports-1-already-espns-closest-rival/
Actually, Comcast is limited in how much hardball they play.
If Comcast refuses to carry FoxSports channels while pushing their own NBCSports channels — the Feds are gonna hit them hard with the antitrust stick.
Feds have done this before. Movie studios are not allowed to own movie theaters for this reason — because the studio-owed theaters would refuse to show movies from competing studios, or give sweetheart deals to their own studios.
Comcast is walking an increasingly thin line being both a content producer (NBC, NBCSports) and a cable provider.
They can stall until traction dies… Imagine if all UFC took place on Fuel. The brand would get badly affected.
And no… 4 FOX shows a year wont have an impact
Record ratings for UFC on FX 7 at 1.9 million viewers.
Also, the prelims on FUEL drew 255,000.
Too bad FX is out going forward…
Called comcast about a year ago and asked about Fuel still no Fuel WTF, The UFC needs to use its PPV power to get these companies to cary fuel.
What PPV power?
If these companies don’t carry the UFC PPV’s it hurts the UFC more than it does the cable carriers that’s for sure.
Having your content jump from channel to channel every few years won’t help either. They just got on FX and now they might be jumping off it again in a few years? Not a good move. Look at all the confusion and ratings turmoil jumping from Spike caused.
Very true Random Dude. The majority of “fans” don’t read every tid bit of info about a sport or brand. They need to be trained to tune into the same channel at the same time every week.
What PPV powe?r all Comcast does is advertise ppv events, even when you call their 800 number you get a UFC ppv advertisement. I’m sure they get a nice cut of any order duughh!!
I agree with those above who see this Fox rebranding as a long-term positive for the UFC. Short-term, there could be issues–but the content of both new Fox sports networks is very attractive–beyond the UFC offering.
I always thought the brands of FX and Fuel to miss the marketing mark by their very names. The branding Fox Sports 1 and Fox Sports 2 crystallizes the marketing message in a no-nonsense fashion, and appeals to the broadest viewer base. For example, if one were a UFC fan AND a NasCar fan–the lure of the new network would be strong.
At any rate, it will be interesting to see how these two new sports networks unfold amidst strong competition.