Fox Sports 1 launching on Saturday

[Dan Druff]

For those of you that haven't heard, ESPN is finally going to have competition, after having a virtual monopoly on the national sports scene since the early 1980s.

Fox finally decided to give up the "local sports channels only" model, and is launching a direct competitor to ESPN called "Fox Sports 1".

I hope it succeeds, because ESPN has really annoyed me lately with their east coast bias --specifically their under-coverage of the Dodgers' historic 40-8 run since June 22.

What do you guys think? Will Fox Sports 1 seriously challenge ESPN in the ratings, or will it be an epic fail that we laugh at a few years from now?

[BeerAndPoker]

This is taking over for the Speed channel if I'm not mistaken so anyone who has that should have Fox Sports One.

Fox is also launching another cable network channel called FXX where shows like The League and It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia are moving to that have aired on FX.

The Poker Entertainment Network is also launching at the end of the year on cable.

[TUFFTURF]

The East coast bias is really annoying. I understand why they do it(big market, money, etc), but I for one am tired of them jamming the fucking Red Sox/Yankees and the New England Patriots down my throat.

I hope FS1 does a good job and will be watching it.

[BeerAndPoker]

The first night they are airing a live UFC event on the channel. I know many watch UFC and many don't but it's huge right now which this will be a good way to kick off the channel.

[chinamaniac]

Will prob fail or wont come close to espn

Fox had a national nightly show once and it failed, cnn had their version of sports tonight and that failed

Problem will also arise if they get stuck on some shitty channel that is not close to anything else people watch

But I am looking forward to it

Espn has become TMZ of sports and most of their non news shows suck but they get good ratings

[devidee]

They hired Clay Travis.

No thanks.

[Crowe Diddly]

It's not gonna be huge, and its not gonna fail. It's just another decent sports network in a sea of decent sports networks. Fox Sports 2 will be soon behind it, if not launching at the same time, I'm not sure. FX is also branching off into FXX, which will carry shit like Always Sunny and the League, and endless reruns of other shit probably, at least at first.

The way they bundle these channels together, it almost can't be a huge fail. They're launching in 90+ million homes FS1, anyway), so they're already bringing in a half-decent monthly revenue on that number alone. They don't need a huge number of viewers to stay profitable, I don't think. If these channels fail, it will be because the cable industry itself is getting hurt badly, and shit tons of other channels will be failing at the same time. The large media corporations aren't looking to let that happen anytime soon.

[Bootsy Collins]

Here is an idea.

Throw on one or two NFL games on FS1 on Sundays.

[Sloppy Joe]

Does anybody else never watch ESPN except for live sports?

If I want to watch analysis/highlights, I watch NFL network, NBA TV or FoxSoccer.

For at least a couple of years I've just found the topics boring and/or useless

[BeerAndPoker]

Does anybody else never watch ESPN except for live sports?

If I want to watch analysis/highlights, I watch NFL network, NBA TV or FoxSoccer.

For at least a couple of years I've just found the topics boring and/or useless

ESPN for reporting or talkish type shows are decent in small dosages but they do rehash stuff way too much.

I can see FOX Sports 1 doing this same thing but we will see. They should not be attempting to compete with Sportscenter.

As for awful I saw something quite bad yesterday:

[NaturalBornHustler]

The day it launches I will watch as little ESPN as possible, and them as much as FoxSports as possible. Obviously I won't be able to cancel out ESPN altogether, but I will try to come as close as I can to doing that.

Anyone who doesn't follow this credo will be part of the problem.

[big dick]

fox network can suck a dick

[Dan Druff]

The day it launches I will watch as little ESPN as possible, and them as much as FoxSports as possible. Obviously I won't be able to cancel out ESPN altogether, but I will try to come as close as I can to doing that.

Anyone who doesn't follow this credo will be part of the problem.

I agree. This is why I won't be bothering with ESPN all that much (except when they carry live sports I want to watch):

The current content of ESPN.com, from like 1 minute ago:



What do you notice?

 

What? You don't notice anything?

Okay, let's try again. What don't you notice?

That's right. There is nothing about the Dodgers on the front page, aside from a little feature about Kenley Jansen at the bottom! This is despite the fact that they're currently enjoying the best 48-game run in baseball since 1942.

Can you imagine that a team with the best 48-game run in 71 years doesn't have a single place on the front page of ESPN's baseball section?



There would be like 7 articles about this if it were the Red Sox in this situation.

[dwai]

Fuck the dodgers.

[dwai]

All they talked about for two weeks was their 15 game ROAD winning streak. ROFL. Win 15 games in a row and we'll start talking.

[ftpjesus]

Will prob fail or wont come close to espn

Fox had a national nightly show once and it failed, cnn had their version of sports tonight and that failed

Problem will also arise if they get stuck on some shitty channel that is not close to anything else people watch

But I am looking forward to it

Espn has become TMZ of sports and most of their non news shows suck but they get good ratings

On the flipside though FoxSports XM Radio station has remained viable as a competitor to ESPN Radio nationwide I dont know what the demo splits look like for listenership but seeing how Sirius XM does somewhat care about their bottom line and staying finanically afloat if nobody was listening they wouldve killed the channel by now.

[ftpjesus]

Does anybody else never watch ESPN except for live sports?

If I want to watch analysis/highlights, I watch NFL network, NBA TV or FoxSoccer.

For at least a couple of years I've just found the topics boring and/or useless

ESPN for reporting or talkish type shows are decent in small dosages but they do rehash stuff way too much.

I can see FOX Sports 1 doing this same thing but we will see. They should not be attempting to compete with Sportscenter.

As for awful I saw something quite bad yesterday:

Only talkshow I like on ESPN is Mike and Mike.. Colin Blowhard just annoys me and while I sorta like SVP because hes from my hometown area Id like to bitchslap Ryen Russillo with a fucking phone book.

[ftpjesus]

The day it launches I will watch as little ESPN as possible, and them as much as FoxSports as possible. Obviously I won't be able to cancel out ESPN altogether, but I will try to come as close as I can to doing that.

Anyone who doesn't follow this credo will be part of the problem.

I agree. This is why I won't be bothering with ESPN all that much (except when they carry live sports I want to watch):

The current content of ESPN.com, from like 1 minute ago:



What do you notice?

 

What? You don't notice anything?

Okay, let's try again. What don't you notice?

That's right. There is nothing about the Dodgers on the front page, aside from a little feature about Kenley Jansen at the bottom! This is despite the fact that they're currently enjoying the best 48-game run in baseball since 1942.

Can you imagine that a team with the best 48-game run in 71 years doesn't have a single place on the front page of ESPN's baseball section?



There would be like 7 articles about this if it were the Red Sox in this situation.

If its any consolation Druff We get plenty of Dodger news on FZAZ for obvious reasons. Painful as it was to watch my Orioles get Walk Off not one but 3 straight games it seems nothing is good enough to catch the Dodgers who are doing their best to re-write the record books now after a wretched 1st half.. If the NL East had at least one team above .500 the Braves wouldnt be napping the rest of the season into the playoffs but nobody's catching them and the Dbacks have only a remote chance in hell of catching LA and thats only if somebody puts the fire in their asses out basically.

[NaturalBornHustler]

I have always said the only way a competitor would put a dent in what ESPN has going is if the people running it had so much money to put into the project it was crazy. Anything is possible if you have enough money. Most lose interest or give up after a short period of time, what a waste.

ESPN is so fucking big now nothing will ever bring it down, there are so many people lacking intelligence who watch it is easy. Look at how the target audience for a show like First Take has changed over the years...who they are going after......the music, the people they hire to rant and say dumb shit. they want to lowest form of viewer, they are the ones who can be lured into watching the abortion their network has become.

Regards to the channel it will be on, which absolutely IS critical, I just checked and it will be replacing Speed channel...which is pretty low on mine (channel 55). before I looked I was dreading seeing it in the 8 fucking hundreds or something where the other "specific" sports channels are. So that is good it is on a low channel and probably is in a lot of places.

[lewfather]

The name is pretty bad though, they couldn't come up with anything better?