Rumor: News Corp. Planning US-Based Network to Rival ESPN

Published: 28th Mar 12 3:13 pm
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Kris Hughes
Network Manager
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Christopher Hanewinckel-US PRESSWIRE

Rupert Murdoch’s infamous mega-corporation News Corp is rumored to be in the initial stages of building a rival United States-based network to take on ESPN.

As anyone familiar with the network development process knows, the life-cycle of brainstorming a network to the actual logistics of making it become a reality is a very long and arduous one.

News Corp. has secured many of the required rights deals from the major sports leagues, and pay-TV carriers, but have yet to make any of these agreements public due to privacy issues and other business concerns.

The rumors follow that when News Corp. is ready to launch the new sports network, it will re-brand one of their current holdings, the Fuel action-sports network into the new offering.

If the News Corp. deal does get done, the new network will throw it’s hat into the ring of the multiple upstarts that have popped up over the past few years with a stated desire to take on ESPN, including the NBC Sports Network and CBS Sports Network, both of whom have major events to be televised right around the corner.

Officials from Fox Sports, a subsidiary of News Corp., are in charge of the state-side deal making, and word has it the new channel could debut by the end of the year if the carrier deals can be done in a timely fashion.

This isn’t always as easy as it seems, however– just ask ESPN about how their negotiations for the new Texas-focused Longhorn Network are going and you would be sure to have a better picture of how contentious things can become when two parties are staring at one another across the table.

None of the new networks–the News Corp. offering included– may make much of a dent in the market share which ESPN commands, but it’s great to know they have the wont to give it a shot anyway.

Leaders in business shouldn’t be allowed to continue to lead unopposed just because they are who they are.

If this was the case, things would never change for the better, and we all know sports broadcasting could use a fresh, new outlook that isn’t based on sensationalism and stale stories.

 

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