Fox Sports 1 Update

[MUPanther]

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THIS. I follow sports as close or more closely than almost anybody I know. And outside of a few local games during the regular season that I'll have on as background noise (maybe 2 or 3) and a handful of random playoff games, I'm just not interested in MLB. The game is too slow, the season is too long, and the league is stale. This coming from someone who played baseball as a kid. I'm much more likely to turn on an MLS game than I am an MLB game at this point (the growth of MLS is an entirely different topic) Baseball is similar to hockey, in that there are very small pockets of the country that follow the sport (mostly in the northeast/great lakes) but largely speaking, the country just isn't interested in it like they are football and basketball.

Unless FS1 gets some legitimate football or basketball rights to supplement the Big East, the network isn't going to make waves. Baseball and UFC don't cut it.

Totally agree. Especially with the UFC- I think if anything that's more of a turnoff than almost everything else. MLB still gets decent ratings.

I'm not even so sure if Fox got Big Ten split(they aren't going to totally leave ESPN)- that FS1 would get good enough football rights to be great. I mean ESPN is showing this weekend-
Iowa/Minnesota
Wisconsin/Purdue
Michigan/Northwestern

(you say you didn't list Ohio St/Michigan St- that game would NEVER be on FS1.)

FS1 would likely get 1 of those 3 games that I listed. How is that much better than what they have now?

Basketball yeah, it's great. But basketball just doesn't drive the ratings that football does.

Keep in mind the B1G in 2017 is going to nine conferences games, so more inventory to go around.

[stever20]

Read his comment. It was that folks that wanted to watch the game couldn't. Now I agree with you that with guides etc. that seems strange.

And the fact that Bud did say that they were going to have to look at it in the offseason- should give you pause. That's my point....

As far as the Big Ten- yes they'll go to 9 conference games- but lets take this weekend. ESPN has the 3 games that I mentioned. The other 4 teams that are off this weekend are Maryland, Rutgers, Illinois, and Nebraska. What sexy game could they have with any of those 4 games that are even decent tv games? Maybe Nebraska/Illinois. Best case they get this weekend a Iowa/Minnesota game for FS1. Is that a good game? Yes. But is it a game changer for FS1???

[hoyahooligan]

Read his comment. It was that folks that wanted to watch the game couldn't. Now I agree with you that with guides etc. that seems strange.

And the fact that Bud did say that they were going to have to look at it in the offseason- should give you pause. That's my point....

As far as the Big Ten- yes they'll go to 9 conference games- but lets take this weekend. ESPN has the 3 games that I mentioned. The other 4 teams that are off this weekend are Maryland, Rutgers, Illinois, and Nebraska. What sexy game could they have with any of those 4 games that are even decent tv games? Maybe Nebraska/Illinois. Best case they get this weekend a Iowa/Minnesota game for FS1. Is that a good game? Yes. But is it a game changer for FS1???

Actually the way I read it was the radio host pushing that narrative that people couldn't find and Bud basically brushed it off saying. I didn't get anyone writing in complaining they couldn't find the game and I get a lot of male about a lot of things. But the radio host pressed on so he placated him saying we would look into it.

[NJRedman]

Read his comment. It was that folks that wanted to watch the game couldn't. Now I agree with you that with guides etc. that seems strange.

And the fact that Bud did say that they were going to have to look at it in the offseason- should give you pause. That's my point....

As far as the Big Ten- yes they'll go to 9 conference games- but lets take this weekend. ESPN has the 3 games that I mentioned. The other 4 teams that are off this weekend are Maryland, Rutgers, Illinois, and Nebraska. What sexy game could they have with any of those 4 games that are even decent tv games? Maybe Nebraska/Illinois. Best case they get this weekend a Iowa/Minnesota game for FS1. Is that a good game? Yes. But is it a game changer for FS1???

It's absolute BS that people couldn't find the game and complained to Bud. Anyone under 60 knows how to use a channel guide and FS1 isn't buried deep on cable or satellite. FS2 is, but not FS1. Seriously, this is such a straw man BS argument.

[Xudash]

I don't understand this "FS1" is a buried channel business.

On my system, ESPN flagship station is at 140 on the dial and FS1 is at 150. If the glass is half empty, then they're both buried (i.e. for being above 100). If the glass is half full, then they're both very much in proximity to one another; clearly no advantage to ESPN.

[stever20]

I think a bigger FS1 problem is in hotels. I know I was in at least 1 hotel that didn't have FS1 at all. But had like 2 or 3 ESPN channels.

[Hoopfan]

I don't understand this "FS1" is a buried channel business.

On my system, ESPN flagship station is at 140 on the dial and FS1 is at 150. If the glass is half empty, then they're both buried (i.e. for being above 100). If the glass is half full, then they're both very much in proximity to one another; clearly no advantage to ESPN.

Bright house (TW company) here in Florida has FS1 on channel 112 right between tv classics such as jewelry tv, world Christian news, IFC, and health and fitness while espn, NBC sports, cbs sports, etc are channels 27-40

[DudeAnon]

For me, FS1 525, ESPN 528. But those 3 spots were a long journey for my weary fingers.

[NJRedman]

Direct TV ESPN is 206 and FS1 is 219 with all sports channels between them.

[Polyfro]

The hotel thing is a very real issue (I was out of town during the LCS and had to go down to the hotel bar to watch one of the games because FS1 wasn't available in the room). The other issue is on a lot of providers, such as Cox in Omaha, FS1 is only available with a digital box. People with the standard analog cable package can't get FS1 on Cox here; it's not so much a matter of not being able to find it as it is not having it at all. Further strengthening this thought is the fact that TBS is available on regular cable while FS1 is not.

Given baseball's demos, which skew older, I'd guess there's some potentially significant overlap between the people that only have regular analog cable and the people looking for a MLB playoff game. Something to consider.