Fox Sports Midwest is an American regional sports network owned by Fox Cable Networks, a unit of the Fox Entertainment Group division of 21st Century Fox, and operates as an affiliate of Fox Sports Networks. The channel broadcasts regional event coverage of sports teams throughout the Midwestern United States, most prominently, professional sports teams based in St. Louis, Missouri.
Fox Sports Midwest is available on cable providers throughout eastern and central Missouri, central and southern Illinois, Southern Indiana, Nebraska, and Iowa; it is also available nationwide on satellite via DirecTV and Dish Network.
Video Fox Sports Midwest
History
The channel originally launched in November 1989 as Prime Sports Midwest, serving as an affiliate of the Prime Network. Originally seen mainly within Indiana, the channel began expanding its cable provider coverage westward in 1994. Following Liberty Media's sale of the Prime Network to News Corporation, the channel became a member of the newly formed Fox Sports Net (then a joint venture between Liberty Media and News Corporation) and rebranded as Fox Sports Midwest on November 1, 1996. The channel was then rebranded as Fox Sports Net Midwest in 1999, as part of a collective brand modification of the FSN networks under the "Fox Sports Net" banner; subsequently in 2004, the channel shortened its name to FSN Midwest, through the networks' de-emphasis of the brand.
In the spring of 2006, Fox Sports Midwest obtained the exclusive regional cable television rights to broadcast NBA games involving the Indiana Pacers. This resulted in the channel creating a spin-off regional sports network channel, Fox Sports Indiana, for the primary purpose of airing games from the Pacers and the WNBA's Indiana Fever; Fox Sports Indiana launched on November 1, 2006, at the start of the team's regular season.
In the fall of 2007, Fox Sports Midwest signed an exclusive long-term agreement to broadcast games from the Kansas City Royals (this followed the team's decision to dissolve the Royals Sports Television Network, a regional television syndication service for the team's game broadcasts). On January 24, 2008, the network formally announced that it would spin-off its subfeed for the Kansas City market into a separate channel, Fox Sports Kansas City, to avoid scheduling conflicts with Fox Sports Midwest's St. Louis Cardinals game coverage. The main St. Louis-based feed reverted to the Fox Sports Midwest moniker that same year.
On July 15, 2010, Fox Sports Midwest signed a new television contract with the St. Louis Cardinals, giving the channel exclusive regional broadcast rights to the team's games beginning with the 2011 season, ending the team's local broadcasts in the St. Louis market on NBC affiliate KSDK (channel 5).
On July 30, 2015, Fox Sports Midwest and the St. Louis Cardinals agreed to a long-term television rights agreement. The new agreement will begin in 2018 and will run 15 seasons through the 2032 season. The deal will guarantee the St. Louis Cardinals more than $1 billion.
On December 14, 2017, The Walt Disney Company announced plans to acquire all 22 regional Fox Sports networks from 21st Century Fox, including Fox Sports Midwest. Once the deal is approved, the networks will be rebranded under ESPN.
Maps Fox Sports Midwest
Programming
Fox Sports Midwest holds the exclusive regional cable television rights to Major League Baseball games from the St. Louis Cardinals, NHL games from the St. Louis Blues. A number of Indiana Pacers NBA games are also screened, usually when there is no conflicting Blues telecast. The channel also broadcasts college athletics, including men's basketball games from the Missouri Valley Conference, St. Louis Billikens and SIUE Cougars, as well as men's and women's basketball games from the Kansas State Wildcats (which are also broadcast on Fox Sports Kansas City) and the Nebraska Cornhuskers. Until the creation of the SEC Network in 2014, it also screened a substantial amount of Missouri Tigers programming, including select football games, basketball, occasional Olympic sports telecasts, and coaches' and magazine shows.
Other services
Fox Sports Midwest Plus
Fox Sports Midwest Plus is an overflow feed of Fox Sports Midwest that was launched in October 2011. Fox Sports Kansas City and Fox Sports Indiana also operate their own Fox Sports Plus overflow feeds to resolve scheduling conflicts with Fox Sports Midwest-televised events that are simulcast on the two channels.
Notable on-air staff
Current
St. Louis Blues
- Bernie Federko - analyst
- John Kelly - play-by-play announcer
- Darren Pang - ice-level reporter
- Jim "The Cat" Hayes - Blues Live host
- Scott Warmann - Blues Live Host
St. Louis Cardinals
- Rick Horton - color analyst
- Al Hrabosky - color analyst
- Tim McCarver - color analyst
- Jim Edmonds - color analyst
- Dan McLaughlin - play-by-play announcer
- Brad Thompson - studio analyst
- Rick Ankiel - studio analyst
- Jim "The Cat" Hayes - field reporter
- Scott Warmann - studio host
College sports
- Eric Piatkowski - Nebraska Cornhuskers men's basketball color analyst
- Jon Sundvold - Missouri Tigers men's basketball color analyst
- Scott Highmark - Saint Louis Billikens men's basketball color analyst
- Joe Pott - SIU Edwardsville Cougars men's basketball color analyst
Former
- Quinn Buckner - Indiana Pacers analyst (now with Fox Sports Indiana)
- Clark Kellogg - Indiana Pacers analyst (now with Fox Sports Indiana)
- Ryan Lefebvre - Royals play-by-play (now with Fox Sports Kansas City)
- Frank White - Royals analyst (now with Fox Sports Kansas City)
- Pat Parris - Blues Live Host, Cardinals Live Host, Saint Louis Billikens and SIUE Cougars men's basketball play-by-play (now with KGUN-TV)
References
External links
- Official website
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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