Fox revealed its plans today for Fox Sports 1 which will launch August 17th. According to SI’s Richard Deitsch, the dedicated sports channel will have UFC Fight Nights on Wednesdays. However, it will have a UFC Fight Night the first night of the channel, August 17th.
Deitsch also reports that the fights on Wednesdays will air 12 UFC FIght Nights from August until the end of 2013 from 8-11pm. Also, the channel will debut a documentary series in the fall with Mike Tyson as its first subject.
Fox Sports 1 will be available to about 90 million homes. The channel is seen as a competitor to ESPN and the channel is seen as a way DVR-proof way to attract the young male demographic.
According to the NY Times, Fox Sports 1 will charge cable, satellite and telephone companies about $.75-$1.00 per subscriber. In comparison, ESPN charges $5-$15 per subscriber plus additional fees.
Payout Perspective:
More details of UFC programming will continue to come out but based on the information it looks like the UFC will be at least a weekly resident on Fox Sports 1. The launch of this new channel (and the potential of FS2) probably secures a long-term relationship between the UFC and Fox which should help the UFC garner mainstream sponsors and continue to push itself as a mainstream sport.
Thats teh end of 2014.
Its not a weekly show, its just taking Fight Nights from FX/Fuel and putting them all on Wed on FS1 along with PPV prelims on Sat and UFC Tonight.
They are taking the FX/Fuel major content and putting it all on one network which is awesome. FS2 will probably get FS1 event prelims and shoulder programming.
Great news, FS1 will launch in 90 mill homes, FS2 should be in about 60 to start, great news.
This is a big move for Fox and the UFC.
If the NY Times is correct about the charges to cable outlets–that is a significant competitive difference which will allow Fox to gobble market share fast and increase subscribers.
The new FS1 has a bundle of other sports of interest to the 18-49 year demographic–including Major League Baseball, Big League Soccer, NASCAR, college football, college basketball and sports news and shows.
I am reasonably confident with the network’s previous track record in sports programming and the exisitng deals Fox now has with major sports franchises that both FS1 and FS2 will be highly successful.
You guys are WAY under estimating the brand of ESPN.
When people think Sports, they think ESPN.
No shit Sampson, nobody is saying FS1 is gonna overtake ESPN anytime soon, if ever. But Fox Sports can clearly be number 2 and a solid destination for sports fans.
Its not a sprint its a marathon, the goal is get more sports rights over the next 10 years, when sports rights come up FS will be in a position to try and steal them from ESPN.
But this is a guy who said it will take 3 years for UFC to hit the same numbers Bellator is doing on Spike.
I agree with Chris. This gives Fox incentive to go after larger broadcast deals. Before all they had was Fox for their sports and it was very crowded. They never wanted to fill FX with sports and their dozens of regional sports networks werent good for popular sporting events because they all do their own thing. This gives Fox now 3 networks to house major sporting events. They can bid on more NFL games. They can go after the NBA, etc. Before they had no room. Now it will get interesting. If they put some NFL games on there. They will be a serious player.
The channel sucks and doesnt have any built in viewership. Just a rat race to burn money
The channel hasn’t even launched you idiot, obviously it doesn’t have any built in viewership. It has potential though, and will get more money per subscriber than your precious Spike TV at it’s launch.
I think it depends on how much money Fox is willing to sink in. NFL and NASCAR are VERY expensive to broadcast compared to the UFC. Those two will deliver big ratings, but will require a big ad sale in order to come close to breaking even. It’s a pretty big gamble, but great for the UFC to be in the middle of it.