People have long wanted a legitimate challenger to ESPN. ESPN steers the discourse on sports based almost entirely by what they carry on their family of networks. That’s why we get entire packages of X-Games highlights and barely a mention of the NHL playoffs. It’s why when Los Angeles won the Stanley Cup last year, it took until half an hour into SportsCenter for that to be mentioned.
It’s a network that has become absorbed in personality and puff pieces during its news programs rather than necessarily a network that features highlights and sports. That’s what has really ground down TV viewers. We want to see highlights in the morning. We want coverage of all sports when we wake up in the morning not a belabored hero worship of individual sports, teams or athletes.
Two other sports channels are out there. CBS Sports is an afterthought deep in the nether regions of the sporting periphery. The most notable live sport they have is Atlantic 10 basketball.
NBC Sports has, to this point, been the greatest challenger to ESPN. They have slowly begun to build their TV package, essentially working their way from the outside in. They have Indy Car and Formula One racing, MLS and of course, the NHL. Not only that, but they also air the Olympics and NBC has acquired English Premier Leaue rights. They have developed some debate programs and some NFL based packages for evenings in which they aren’t airing live sports. They have a highlights show, but it ends at 8 and only comes in 20 minute bursts. The cult of personality looks sure to eventually overwhelm NBC as well. Bob Costas? He will be the Jay Leno of NBC Sports. Like him or not, he would ruin the network for many people. If it’s not Costas then NBC’s recent history of poor decision making leads me to believe that they will find someone else.
There is room to improve on the Sports network scene, is what I’m saying, and Fox Sports One, which won’t launch until August 17th appears to be headed in the right direction. Their first big name hires have been Jay Onrait and Dan O’Toole from TSN. Onrait and O’Toole have a famously good chemistry, and have long been the hosts of the Canadian version of SportsCenter…. SportsCentre (That’s actually not a joke). This is a good sign that Fox hopes to incorporate their talents into a highlight/news program. Hopefully, it can fall somewhere between the NBC and ESPN offering.
Fox also has the benefit of a wide array of sports programming rights already. They will be able to air Major League Baseball games, NASCAR and European and international soccer games because of their previously held rights, as well as college football and basketball. If Fox doesn’t try to mimic ESPN in their biased coverage of sports and personality, they have a chance to really connect with viewers. If they do, they are too far behind to really ever catch up.
There is a reason to hope though. Fox has tended to be more in touch with viewers, and have been very aggressive in adding property. They are replacing Speed, which is already on most cable providers. Now all we need to worry about what they will do to our cable bills.
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