Fox Sports (Australia)
| Fox Sports | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Launched | 26 January 1995[1] |
| Owned by | Fox Sports Pty Limited |
| Picture format |
576i (SDTV) 16:9 1080i (HDTV) 16:9 |
| Audience share |
Fox Sports 1: 0.2% Fox Sports 2: 0.1% Fox Sports 3: 0.1% Fox Sports 4: 0.6% Fox Sports 5: 0.1% (November 2015, [2]) |
| Slogan | We're a FOX Sporting Nation |
| Country | Australia |
| Language | English |
| Headquarters | Artarmon, New South Wales |
| Formerly called | Premier Sports (prior to 19 February 1996) |
| Sister channel(s) |
Fox Footy Fox Sports News |
| Website | www.foxsports.com.au |
Availability | |
| Satellite | |
| Foxtel |
Fox Sports 1: Channel 501 (SD/HD) Fox Sports 2: Channel 502 (SD/HD) Fox Sports 3: Channel 503 (SD/HD) Fox Sports 4: Channel 505 (SD/HD) Fox Sports 5: Channel 506 (SD/HD) Fox Sports Plus: Channel 507 Fox Sports 1: Channel 1501 (SD) Fox Sports 2: Channel 1502 (SD) Fox Sports 3: Channel 1503 (SD) Fox Sports 4: Channel 1505 (SD) Fox Sports 5: Channel 1506 (SD) |
| Cable | |
| Foxtel |
Fox Sports 1: Channel 501 (SD/HD) Fox Sports 2: Channel 502 (SD/HD) Fox Sports 3: Channel 503 (SD/HD) Fox Sports 4: Channel 505 (SD/HD) Fox Sports 5: Channel 506 (SD/HD) Fox Sports Plus: Channel 507 Fox Sports 1: Channel 1501 (SD) Fox Sports 2: Channel 1502 (SD) Fox Sports 3: Channel 1503 (SD) Fox Sports 4: Channel 1505 (SD) Fox Sports 5: Channel 1506 (SD) |
| Optus TV |
Fox Sports 1: Channel 501 Fox Sports 2: Channel 502 Fox Sports 3: Channel 503 Fox Sports 4: Channel 504 Fox Sports Plus: Channel 505 Fox Sports 5: Channel 506 |
| IPTV | |
| Foxtel Play |
Fox Sports News: Channel 500 Fox Sports 1: Channel 501 Fox Sports 2: Channel 502 Fox Sports 3: Channel 503 Fox Sports 4: Channel 505 Fox Sports 5: Channel 506 |
| Telstra T-Box |
Sports Play: Channel 507 Footy Play: Channel 504 Footy Play+: Channel 506 Fox Sports News: Channel 513 |
Fox Sports is an Australian group of sports channels, owned by Fox Sports Pty Limited (known as Premier Media Group until February 2012),[3][4] which is owned by News Corp Australia. Its main competitors are ESPN and beIN Sports Australia.
Fox Sports in Australia differs from other Fox Sports-branded channels in the United States and elsewhere around the world in that it is not owned by 21st Century Fox, but by News Corp—the publishing company that was spun out from the larger News Corporation in 2013. Although 21st Century Fox maintains ownership of the remainder of News Corporation's broadcasting assets, its Australian television assets were spun out with the new company as well. Both companies nonetheless remain under the control of the Murdoch family.
History
Fox Sports started life as the Premier Sports Network (later just 'Premier Sports') as the only fully operational local channel at the launch of Australia's first pay-television service, Galaxy.[1] Premier Sports' backers included American company Prime International, which was later to become part of Liberty Media.
The service was launched at 4pm 26 January 1995 in Sydney and made a name for itself, securing the rights to Australia's cricket tour of the West Indies. Previously Australian cricket tours had been covered on the Nine Network on free-to-air, and Nine tried to stop the broadcast under Australia's 'anti-siphoning' rules, which state that certain popular sporting events cannot be screened exclusively on pay television. PSN signed a deal with Network Ten to share the broadcast rights.
When Foxtel launched its cable service later that year, PSN was included as part of the package. Between 1995 and 2010, Fox Sports aired National Basketball League (NBL) games. On 1 March 1996, PSN was relaunched as Fox Sports Australia, to coincide with the new Super 12 rugby union competition and the proposed launch of the Super League.
In 1997 a secondary channel was launched on Foxtel to carry broadcasts of the new Super League competition. Fox Sports and its chief competitor, Sports Australia shared the rights to NRL broadcasts as a result of the legal settlement in the Super League war. The channel on Foxtel was later relaunched as Fox Sports Two, at first broadcasting from Friday through Monday each week, and later expanding to a full 24-hour, 7-day service in 2002.
When Optus Vision dropped the C7 Sport service in March 2002, they started carrying the Fox Sports channels. These were referred to by Optus as "Optus Sports 1" and "Optus Sports 2" in Optus promotional material; on-air programming referred to the channels as simply "Sports One" and "Sports Two", although programming such as the nightly Fox Sports News bulletins retained the Fox name. Optus dropped the "Optus Sports" name in October 2002.
Fox Sports Two is generally used to cover bigger events that require large amounts of air time, such as the 1998 Winter Olympics, Grand Slam tennis tournaments, and the 2004 European Football Championship.
During the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Fox Sports carried an additional eight channels dedicated to Games events. These were available to customers at an additional charge.
Fox Sports has been the exclusive broadcaster of the Hyundai A-League since its first season in 2005. And in 2006, an A$120 million deal between the FFA and Fox Sports was reached after the end of the first season. Under the deal, Fox Sports will have exclusive rights from 2007 to all Socceroos home internationals, all A-League and Asian Cup fixtures, World Cup qualifiers through the AFC, and all AFC Champions League matches.
The deal to cover the A-league live and exclusive has reaped big rewards for Fox Sports, its ratings were very strong in the 2006-07 season and the 2007 A-league grand final became at the time, Fox Sports highest ever rating event.[5]
Ratings for football have generally been very good. The Socceroos first game of the 2007 AFC Asian Cup, attracted 345,000 viewers,[6] while their Quarter final drew an average of 419,000[7] - at the time, an all-time record for Australian Pay TV. This record was broken on 1 April 2009, when the Socceroos defeated Uzbekistan to put them very close to qualification for the 2010 FIFA World Cup - this match was watched by an average of 431,000 people.[8]
In 2007, Fox Sports reached a deal to broadcast 4 games live and exclusive from the AFL each week. This includes the exclusive only Sunday twilight match. In addition they will broadcast Friday night games live into New South Wales and Queensland via channel 518 at no extra charge - normally used for pay-per-view service Main Event. When channel 518 a is used in this way it is promoted as Fox Sports Plus on-air.
The channel is being used increasingly to show live events when Fox Sports has a clash involving its main 3 channels - for example on Saturday 17 March 2007 Fox Sports broadcast a match from the 2007 Cricket World Cup (Ireland v Pakistan) live on 518 - as it was committed to Football, Rugby Union and another cricket match on its main 3 channels.
In 2010 Fox Sports coverage of National Rugby League games held 73 out of the top 100 programs of any type aired Foxtel.
On 5 March 2013, Fox Sports unveiled its new headquarters at Artarmon, New South Wales, where it was announced the main studio would be named the Clive Churchill Studio in name of the NRL immortal Clive Churchill as the studio will house NRL coverage. Technical innovations were the main highlight, with CEO Patrick Delany unveiling the FoxKopter, the FoxMobile Segway, Ref Cam and Cornerpost Cam. Fox Sports also launched a new corporate logo in line with its global affiliate broadcasters.[9][10]
On 3 September 2014, Fox Sports announced that SPEED and Fuel TV would be rebranded as FOX Sports 4 and FOX Sports 5 on 3 November 2014, of which both will be available in HD. In addition, it was announced FOX Sports News would launch a HD feed on the same day - taking FOX Sports' suite to 7 channels, all available in HD.[11][12]
Fox Sports News
Channels
- Fox Sports 1 (HD)
- Fox Sports 2 (HD)
- Fox Sports 3 (HD)
- Fox Sports 4 (HD)
- Fox Sports 5 (HD)
- Fox Sports News (HD)
- Fox Footy (HD)
- Sports Play powered by Fox Sports (available on Xbox 360, Telstra T-Box, and Foxtel on Internet TV)[3][13]
- Footy Play powered by Fox Sports (AFL channel available on Xbox 360, Telstra T-Box, and Foxtel on Internet TV)[3][13]
- Footy Play+ powered by Fox Sports (available on Xbox 360, Telstra T-Box, and Foxtel on Internet TV)
- Fox Sports Plus: Launched on 6 September 2012 to show what live and upcoming sports are available via "Viewer's Choice" on Fox Sports 1, 2, 3, Speed and Fuel TV[14]
Past Channels
- Fox Sports +: The Main Event channel was used as an "overflow" channel when multiple live sporting events needed to be broadcast. This included Friday Night AFL in New South Wales, Queensland and Canberra and Saturday Nights in New South Wales (excluding the Wagga Wagga market) and Canberra. It was also used nationwide for a Socceroos game in June 2007. On many occasions the Main Event channel was used when the Premier League had multiple games on the one night, although usage in this capacity is rare now that the "Viewer's Choice" system of showing multiple matches on one channel through multi-casting (pressing the "Red Button" on a Foxtel/Austar remote control). Unlike the AFL, the NRL was never broadcast into Southern Australia through Fox Sports Plus on Friday nights, leaving its Southern Australian fans having to wait until at least after midnight for a replay of the match on local free-to-air channels up until 2012.
- Fuel TV
- Speed
Programming
- The Back Page
- The Crew
- The Golf Show
- Hammer Time
- Inside Cricket
- Inside Rugby
- Inside Supercars
- Kick Off
- Matchday Saturday
- Monday Night with Matty Johns
- NRL 360
- Rugby 360
- Shoot Out
- Super Rugby Extra Time
- Supercars Life
- On the Couch with Sterlo
Sports/competitions televised by Fox Sports (in 2016)
Australian rules football
- Australian Football League Premiership Season (Broadcasts three matches live during most weekends of the regular season whenever sister channel Fox Footy, is screening another LIVE match at the same time. Fox Sports occasionally screens other programming such as magazine and panel shows that are produced and broadcast by Fox Footy.
Basketball
- National Basketball League (All games live, including semi-finals and Grand Final)
Combat sports
- Cage Fighting Championship
- Evolution
- Fox Sports Friday Night Fights
- Hammer Time
- Knees of Fury
- Maximus Academy
- UFC Fight Night
- The Ultimate Fighter
Cricket
- Australian national cricket team International Test Cricket (overseas only, home series on Nine Network)
- Australian national cricket team One-day Internationals (overseas only, home series on Nine Network)
- Home series of the England cricket team
- Home series of the West Indies cricket team
- Home series of the New Zealand cricket team
- Home series of the South African cricket team
- Home series of the Pakistan cricket team
- Home series of the Sri Lankan cricket team
- Home series of the Indian cricket team
- ICC World Twenty20
Darts
Field hockey
Golf
- American PGA Tour (All rounds)
- European PGA Tour
- Champions Tour
- Women's major golf championships
- Asian Tour (highlights)
- U.S. Open
Ice hockey
- Australian Ice Hockey League (Highlights)
- National Hockey League (2-3 live games a week)
Motorsport
Formula racing
Open wheel
Stock Cars
Touring Cars
- Virgin Australian Supercar Championship
- NZ V8 SuperTourers
- World Touring Car Championship
- British Touring Car Championship
- DTM
- European Touring Car Championship
- Shannons Nationals Motor Racing Championships
- Superstars International Series
- Summernats
Sportscars
- Le Mans 24 Hours
- Rolex GRAND-AM Sportscar Series
- American Le Mans Series
- Australian GT Championship
- Bathurst 12 Hour
- Continental Tire Series
- Dubai 24 Hour
- FIA European Truck Racing Championship
- 24 Hours Nürburgring
- Shannons Nationals Motor Racing Championships
- FIA World Endurance Championship
Drag racing
Bikes
- Grand Prix motorcycle racing
- World Superbike Championship
- British Superbike Championship
- Australian Superbike Championship
Rally
- World Rally Championship
- Australian Rally Championship
- British Rally Championship
- European Rally Championship
- European Rallycross Championship
Speedway
- FIM Speedway Grand Prix
- FIM Speedway World Cup
- British Elite Speedway
- World Series Sprintcars
- Australian Sprintcar Championship
- Chequered Flag
- FIM Ice Speedway World Championship
- Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic
- World of Speedway
Motocross
- AMA Motocross Championship
- Australian Supercross Championship
- British Motocross Championship
- FIM Enduro World Championship
- FIM Motocross World Championship
- FIM MX of Nations
- FIM Supermoto
- MXTV
Netball
- Constellation Cup (All games live, shared with One)
- Diamonds internationals (All games live, shared with Network Ten & One)
Rugby league
- National Rugby League (Every Game Live, 5 games Live and Exclusive and 3 game simulcast Live with Nine in a full round).
- Holden Cup
- New South Wales Cup
- Four Nations (shared with Nine Network)
- European Super League
Rugby union
- Super Rugby (All games live and exclusive)
- The Rugby Championship (shared with Network Ten)
- Wallabies internationals (shared with Network Ten)
- National Rugby Championship
- Currie Cup
- ITM Cup
Soccer
- Hyundai A-League (All games live, shared with SBS)
- Hyundai A-League Finals Series (All games live)
- Asian Champions League (All games involving Australian teams live, plus some others)
- AFC Asian Cup (All Games, 28 games live)
- Socceroos internationals (All games except FIFA World Cup Finals games)
- Indian Super League (To be announced)[15]
- Other separate International Football matches
- Fox Fans League (Semi-Finals & Final aired live)
- Westfield W-League (One live match per week, plus both semi-finals and the grand final live; shared with ABC)
Surfing
- World Surf League (All events live)[16]
Ten-pin bowling
Tennis
- Davis Cup (overseas only, home series on Seven Network)
- Roland Garros (exclusive)
- World Tennis Challenge
- Moorilla Hobart International
- The Championships at Wimbledon (shared with Seven Network)
- US Open
- WTA Tour (replays)
Availability
Fox Sports is available nationally and is available on Foxtel's My Sport package and Optus featuring Foxtel's Total Sport package.
See also
References
- 1 2 Bertolus, Phil (2 February 1995). "At home with Pay TV". The Age Green Guide. Melbourne, Australia: Fairfax Media. p. 1. Retrieved 27 January 2010.
- ↑ Ratings Week 47 (15/11/2015 - 21/11/2015)
- 1 2 3 "About Fox Sports". Fox Sports. Retrieved 2013-07-01.
- ↑ Knox, David (2012-02-29). "Premier Media changes name to Fox Sports Australia". TV Tonight. Retrieved 2013-07-01.
- ↑ "Big Audience For A-league Final".
- ↑ "footballboots big league". The Sydney Morning Herald. 10 July 2007.
- ↑ "Japan Game a TV Record".
- ↑ "Crikey - On politics, media, business, the environment and life".
- ↑ Knox, David (March 6, 2013). "FOX Sports launches new HQ TV Tonight". TV Tonight. Retrieved March 19, 2013.
- ↑ "Fox Sports unveils fresh new look, leading technology ahead of exciting winter season The Cou". The Courier Mail. March 6, 2013. Retrieved March 19, 2013.
- ↑ Knox, David (3 September 2014). "FOX Sports adding two more channels". TV Tonight. Retrieved 3 September 2014.
- ↑ Mark@ (3 September 2014). "BEST YEAR EVER IN 2015 DEMANDS SEVEN HIGH DEFINITION FOX SPORTS CHANNELS". KnowFirst. Retrieved 3 September 2014.
- 1 2 "Foxtel on Internet TV Channel Packages". Foxtel. Retrieved 2013-07-01.
- ↑ David Knox. "FOX Sports Plus channel to launch". TV Tonight. Retrieved 2012-08-31.
- ↑ http://www.foxsports.com.au/football/fox-sports-australia-will-broadcast-the-new-indian-super-league-football-competition/story-e6frf423-1227059138816
- ↑ "World Surf League: FOX SPORTS to showcase world's best surfers". Foxtel. 26 February 2015. Retrieved 13 March 2015.