Fox Sports (United States)
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| Launched | August 12, 1994 |
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| Division of | Fox Broadcasting Company |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Owner | Fox Sports Media Group (21st Century Fox) |
| Key people | Eric Shanks (president, Fox Sports Media Group) |
| Headquarters | Los Angeles, California |
| Major broadcasting contracts |
NFL Major League Baseball Major League Soccer UEFA Champions League NASCAR NCAA football NCAA basketball UFC USGA Formula E WeatherTech SportsCar Championship NHRA Arena Football League |
| Format | Sports |
| Original Language(s) | English |
| Official website | www |
Fox Sports is the programming division of the Fox Broadcasting Company, owned by 21st Century Fox, that is responsible for sports broadcasts on the network, and its dedicated regional and national sports cable channels. The flagship entity of 21st Century Fox's Fox Sports Media Group division, it was formed in 1994 with Fox's acquisition of broadcast rights to National Football League (NFL) games. In subsequent years, it has televised the National Hockey League (1994–1999), Major League Baseball (1996–present), NASCAR (2001–present), Bowl Championship Series (2007–2010), Major League Soccer (2015–present), the USGA Championships (2015–present), NHRA (2016–present), the FIFA World Cup and the FIFA Women's World Cup (starting in 2015).
When the Fox Broadcasting Company launched in October 1986, the network's management, having seen how sports programming (in particular, soccer events) played a critical role in the growth of the British satellite service BSkyB, determined that sports would be the type of programming that would ascend Fox to a major network status the quickest; as a result, Fox tried to attract a professional football package to the network. In 1987, after ABC initially hedged on renewing its contract with the National Football League (NFL) for the television rights to Monday Night Football, Fox made an offer for the package at the same price that ABC had been paying at the time – about $13 million per game. However, partly due to the fact that Fox had yet to establish itself as a major network, the NFL decided to resume negotiations with ABC, with the two parties eventually agreeing to a new contract, keeping what was the crown jewel of the league's television broadcasts on that network (where it remained until 2006, when MNF moved to sister network ESPN as part of a contract that also saw NBC gain the Sunday Night Football package).
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