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Chief competitor Fox Sports 1 is not expected to launch until mid-August, but ESPN is already rapidly losing viewers. Ratings show that the 24/7 sports network saw a double-digit drop in Q2 and saw an 8% drop in day viewership and a 12% drop in prime time audience comparing July 2013 to July 2012. While the network did not feature the NBA Draft or College World Series this July as it had the previous year, many conservative viewers have turned off the network due to its embrace of liberal viewpoints and the impending return of left-wing pundit Keith Olbermann. The...

...News Corp., the giant media conglomerate run by billionaire mogul Rupert Murdoch, has made sports a key component of the company’s portfolio. But this deal, which values YES at a whopping $3 billion, takes the company’s sports position to a new level, for three reasons. First, News Corp., which also owns cable news leader Fox News Channel, Hollywood stalwart 20th Century Fox, and 20 regional sports networks, gains a nearly 50% stake in YES, the country’s most valuable regional sports network. Second, the deal puts the media giant firmly in bed (so to speak) with the New York Yankees, arguably...

NBC Sports Group Chairman Dick Ebersol resigned Thursday, ending a multidecade run at NBC Sports amid cultural clashes with the company's new management. View Full Image Associated Press Dick Ebersol Mr. Ebersol and NBCUniversal's new chief executive, Steve Burke, have disagreed over several management matters, including Mr. Ebersol's contract, a person familiar with the matter said.

“Fox Sports said they would not air it because they deemed it too controversial,” Taunton said. “I was stunned because the commercial is so tame. The text does not appear on the television screen, and no one reads John 3:16 aloud.”

The Vikings-Saints NFC championship game that ended in a dramatic overtime Saints win powered FOX to a huge Sunday win. FOX won the night with 52 million viewers, a 27.6 rating/41 share, which is an absolutely massive night, even for an NFL playoff game. In contrast, last Sunday's CBS Jets-Chargers playoff game only garnered 18 million, 10.5/16 share, though it was up against the Golden Globes.

Phone, cable and broadcast companies can get away with a lot in DC, but they best not stand between a man and his football games. As we noted yesterday, Time Warner Cable and News Corporation are engaged in a retransmission fee fight that could wind up with Fox programming being pulled from Time Warner Cable's channel lineup. This apparently displeases football fan and U.S. Senator John Kerry, who sent a letter to News Corp. warning them that Uncle Sam would step in if Fox programming is disrupted later on today

Way cool..

You may have never thought you could get this political insight from a sports commentator, but former NBA Detroit Pistons star-turned-host of "The Best Damn Sports Show Period" on Fox Sports Network John Salley has defied expectations. Salley recently appeared on September 23 edition of "The Adam Carolla" podcast and asked Carolla a very pointed and insightful question. "I have a question - do you hate Obama?" Salley asked. "Why are so many people who now hate him after just 266 days they loved him? All of white America. Not all of ‘em but the majority."

KANSAS CITY, Mo., July 21, 2009 – The Missouri National Guard’s agribusiness team in Afghanistan will get a touch of home when Major League Baseball’s Kansas City Royals and Fox Sports Network honor them during the Royals’ Aug. 8 game with the Oakland A’s at Kauffman Stadium here. Members of the Missouri National Guard agribusiness development team show off the Kansas City Royals baseball gear sent by the Royals and Fox Sports Network in preparation for an Aug. 8 game at which the Royals and Fox Sports Network will honor them. U.S. Army photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available....

President Obama gave a sneak peek of his strategy for his ceremonial first pitch tonight at the Major League Baseball All-Star Game in St. Louis, saying he wanted to loosen up his arm a bit. Obama did not do any practice pitching at the White House but plans to warm up in St. Louis tonight with some throws to Cardinals All-Star First Baseman Albert Pujols. The president recalled his first pitch in the 2005 American League Championship Series between his native Chicago White Sox and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. “I just wanted to keep it high,” he said....

Barack Obama could soon be adding baseball broadcaster to his résumé. With the president scheduled to throw out the first pitch Tuesday in St. Louis for the All-Star Game at Busch Stadium, Fox Sports has made a formal request to interview the president during the game, and the White House is considering it. "We are discussing with Fox the prospect of him being in the booth," White House spokesperson Dan Pfeiffer tells SI.com.

ST. LOUIS -- President Barack Obama will be in the Fox broadcast booth for Tuesday night's All-Star Game...

US Marshals blasted for escorting Fox broadcasters to World Series By Shelley Murphy, Globe Staff US Marshals violated regulations and ethical standards when they escorted Fox Sports broadcasters to and from several major sporting events, including two games of the 2007 World Series in Boston, according to a report issued today by US Inspector General Glenn A. Fine.

Walt Disney will again air the college football Bowl Championship Series starting in 2011, outbidding current owner Fox Sports in a deal valued at $500 million for four years. But unlike the last time Disney owned the BCS, the one major exception is that virtually all games will air on ESPN--not ABC--making it the first major sports championship to be aired on a cable network. Fox Sports had bid $400 million for four years, upping its rights fee over $70 million for its current four-year deal, which will be completed in 2010. Fox Sports has the rights to air the...

Fox to change World Series time for Obama Presidential candidate's ad buy interfering with game By Paul J. GoughOct 15, 2008, 03:15 PM ETUpdated: Oct 15, 2008, 10:06 PM ET NEW YORK -- Barack Obama might have the power to move the World Series by a few minutes. To accommodate a half-hour Obama time buy on Fox on Oct. 29, Major League Baseball has agreed to move the start time of World Series Game 6 by about 15 minutes. That would move the start of the game from 8:20 p.m. ET or so to 8:35 p.m. "Fox will accommodate Senator...

Internal investigation looks at leaked Pats' spy tape By Chris Mortensen ESPN.com The NFL is conducting an internal review to determine how a copy of the Patriots' videotape that spied on Jets signals during the teams' game ended up being aired on Fox's NFL pregame show on Sunday. "We don't know how it happened and we're obviously not happy about it," said Greg Aiello, the league's senior vice president of communications. One theory that should be put to rest is that multiple copies of the tape had been disbursed from the office and into the hands of the league's competition...

UPDATE: And it looks like it's been confirmed. According to AllAccess, Entercom Memphis announced this afternoon that WSMB will become FOX Sports 680 on Saturday evening (9/1), immediately following the Cardinals/Reds game. They will carry the FOX Sports feed most of the time, save for the 11A-2P shift weekdays, Saturday mornings and whenever they run local play by play.

DETROIT -- Fox baseball broadcaster Steve Lyons has been fired for making a racially insensitive comment directed at colleague Lou Piniella's Hispanic heritage on the air during Game 3 of the American League championship series. -snip- Later, Piniella said the A's needed Thomas to get "en fuego" -- hot in Spanish -- because he was currently "frio" -- or cold. After Brennaman praised Piniella for being bilingual, Lyons spoke up. Lyons said that Piniella was "hablaing Espanol" -- butchering the conjugation for the word "to speak" -- and added, "I still can't find my wallet." "I don't understand him, and...

DETROIT (AP) -Fox baseball broadcaster Steve Lyons has been fired for making a racially insensitive comment directed at colleague Lou Piniella's Hispanic heritage on the air during Game 3 of the American League championship series. The network confirmed Saturday that Lyons was dismissed after Friday's game. He has been replaced for the remainder of the series by Los Angeles Angels announcer Jose Mota. Piniella had made an analogy involving the luck of finding a wallet, then briefly used a couple of Spanish phrases during Friday's broadcast. Lyons said that Piniella was "hablaing Espanol" - butchering the conjugation for the word...

CHARLOTTE -- Fox Sports will give Greg Good, the Carolina Panthers fan who dresses up as "Catman" at home games, a new pickup truck, after an on-air practical joke by the network's broadcast team during a preseason game went wrong. In the second half of an Aug. 24 game at Bank of America Stadium between Carolina and Miami, Fox announcers Dick Stockton and Daryl Johnston started billing a car giveaway as a reason for fans to stay tuned after the teams' starters left the game. "Now all you fans out there, you might be thinking, 'Well, the starting units are...