Fox Sports Florida is an American regional sports network owned by Fox Cable Networks, Fox Entertainment Group division unit of 21st Century Fox, and operates as an affiliate of Fox Sports Networks. This channel broadcasts local sports coverage in the state of Florida, focusing on professional sports teams based in Miami, Tampa, and Orlando.
Fox Sports Florida maintains its production and offices located in Fort Lauderdale, along with the Fox Sports Sun sister network. These channels are available on cable providers throughout Florida, and in some parts of southern Alabama and Georgia; it is also available nationally on satellite via Dish Network and DirecTV.
On December 14, 2017, The Walt Disney Company announced plans to acquire 22 regional Fox Network networks from 21st Century Fox, including Fox Sports Florida. Once the deal is approved, the network will change the brand under ESPN.
Video Fox Sports Florida
History
Fox Sports Florida was launched on July 1, 1987 as SportsChannel Florida . Originally owned by Rainbow Media (a subsidiary of Cablevision Systems Corporation), and is the fourth regional network of SportsChannel America. The network initially featured coverage of a local college team, holding broadcasting rights to broadcast certain games from the University of Florida, Florida State University, the University of Miami, the University of South Florida and the University of Jacksonville. In addition to the national SportsChannel programming, this channel also features New York Yankees and New York Mets games from New York SportsChannel, and select Chicago White Sox games broadcasted by SportsChannel Chicago.
In the spring of 1988, SportsChannel Florida obtained the right of regional cable television to broadcast the NBA game of the Miami Heat, which was effective with the 1988-89 season. In 1992, SportsChannel lost a television contract to the Heat to rival the Sunshine Network. The hot game will return to the channel in the late 1990s when both networks were under the ownership of the parent company Fox Sports News Corporation.
In 1996, Florida Panthers owner Wayne Huizenga bought a 70% controlling stake in SportsChannel Florida, with Rainbow Media (at the time, a joint venture between Cablevision and NBC) retaining a 30% minority stake. It caused Huizenga to move the NHL franchise broadcast from Sunshine Network to SportsChannel Florida for the 1996-97 season. The following year in 1997, the Florida SportsChannel gained the rights to Florida Marlins - also owned by Huizenga - who moved its broadcast from the Sunshine Network starting with the Major League Baseball season that year. In 1998, Florida SportsChannel acquired regional cable rights for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays Major League Baseball expansion team.
Unlike other network members of the SportsChannel America chain, Huizenga's control over SportsChannel Florida prevented the channel from joining Fox Sports Net in early 1998. Cablevision eventually bought back the shares of Huizenga on the network in November 1999. The network was relaunched as Fox Sports Net Florida on March 1, 2000, making it the last SportsChannel Network to adopt the Fox Sports Net brand. In February 2005, News Corporation acquired ownership of Cablevision ownership in Fox Sports Florida and Fox Sports Ohio, following an asset trade where Fox sold interest at Madison Square Garden and the NBA and NHL teams in the arena, New York Knicks and New York Rangers, to Cablevision , in exchange for acquiring a sole proprietorship of two Fox Sports regional networks. News Corporation separated most of its entertainment properties into 21st Century Fox in July 2013.
Maps Fox Sports Florida
Programming
FOX Sports Florida holds regional cable television rights for Orlando Magic NBA, NHL Florida Panthers, and Miami Marlins from Major League Baseball. It also brings coverage of college sports events from Big East, Big 12, Conference USA, and Atlantic Coast Conferences.
Fox Sports Florida distributed broadcasting rights to the professional sports team with Fox Sports Sun (with Miami Heat games transmitted to cable providers in South Florida, and Orlando Magic games that aired exclusively at Fox Sports Florida in Central and North Florida. does not focus on a single Florida region, but only distributes the game according to the territorial rights of each team, with both cable channels maintaining exclusivity over regional broadcasts of Lightning, Heat, Marlins, Rays, Magic and Panthers games.
Tampa Bay Lightning, Miami Heat and Tampa Bay Rays are broadcast on Fox Sports Sun, while Orlando Magic, Miami Marlins and Florida Panthers are broadcast on Fox Sports Florida. In addition, each network broadcasts exclusive shoulder programming that highlights teams, players, and trainers on related networks.
Other services
Fox Sports Florida HD
Fox Sports Florida HD is a high definition simulcast of Fox Sports Florida, which airs in 720p format. The simulcast feed broadcasts most of the games from professional teams and conferences whose channels hold regional broadcasting rights, as well as programs that are nationally broadcast by FSN in HD.
Leading on-air staff
Current
- Jordan Hopps - Likes Operator/Statistics Savant/5-tools Freelancer
- It will be Waldman - Stats Extraordinaire/VIZ Operator
- Orestes Destrade - Sinar Bay Rays Analysis
- Brian Anderson - Sinar Bay Rays Analyst
- Alex Corddry - Tampa Bay Rays pre and post-match reporter
- Tony Fiorentino - Miami Heat Analyst
- Eric Reid - Miami Heat play-by-play
- Jason Jackson - Miami Heat pre-match and in-game reporter
- Paul Severino - Miami Marlins played by-by-turn
- Todd Hollandsworth - Miami Marlins Analyst
- Craig Minervini - Miami Marlins pre-match and in-game reporter
- Jessica Blaylock - in-game Miami Marlins reporter
- Dewayne Staats - Tampa Bay Rays play-by-play
- Denis Potvin - Florida Panthers analyst
- Steve Goldstein - Florida Panthers play-by-play
- Jeff Turner - Orlando Magic Analyst
- David Steele - Orlando Magic play-by-play
- Rick Peckham - Tampa Bay Lightning play-by-turn
- Dave Andreychuk - Tampa Bay Lightning pre and post-game testers
- Bobby Taylor - a pre and post game analyst from Tampa Bay Lightning
- Paul Kennedy - Tampa Bay Lightning pre and post-match officer
- Chris Myers - Filler for all teams at Fox Sports Florida/Fox Sports Sun
The carriage conflict
Bright House
During the first 21 years of its existence, the channel was not available to most cable customers in the Orlando area, as Bright House Networks, the largest cable system in central Florida, refused to take the channel. The conflict stems from the existence of a previous system as Cablevision (a brand not affiliated with Bethpage, a New York based cable provider of the same name), and continued through acquisitions by Time Warner Cable and, later, Bright House. The issue has not changed after the Fox Sports acquisition of Sun Sports, now known as Fox Sports Sun, which Bright House has already done in its Orlando ranks, and continues even after the Orlando Magic moves half of the TV games in a schedule from MyNetworkTV station owned and operated WRBW (channel 65) to Fox Sports Florida in 2007.
Fox Sports Stations' subsidiary Fox Television Stations previously purchased the WRBW (later UPN affiliate) in Orlando in 2001, followed by the purchase of Fox WOFL affiliate (channel 35) in 2002. On paper, this gives News Corporation - the parent company of Fox Sports Networks at the time - the right to request Bright House to bring Fox Sports Florida as part of a retransmission approval compensation agreement for the transport of WOFL and WRBW, but Fox chose not to exercise that right. Bright House will agree to bring Fox Sports Florida to its Orlando system, with the channel added to the 50's digital cable channel on January 1, 2009. News Corporation and Bright House reached a new retransmission agreement on January 1, 2010, preventing both Fox Sports Florida and Sun Sports were excluded from a central Florida system provider.
Fox Sports Florida was also not available on Comcast systems in Sarasota and Tallahassee markets until 2006, and remains unavailable on the Comcast Lake County system. The Orlando Magic game that aired on the channel was blackened by Comcast in the Jacksonville market.
References
External links
- Official website
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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