Business Wars

It’s the late 1970s and TV sports is equivalent to a few hours of programming on ABC, NBC and CBS each week. But in Connecticut, Bill Rasmussen is on a mission to change that by creating a cable TV network dedicated to airing sports. Trouble is, he’s got no money, no sports rights, no TV studio, and no cable provider willing to put his network into homes.

It’s the early 1990s and media mogul Rupert Murdoch is out to shatter ABC, CBS and NBC’s stranglehold on American TV and take his Fox network into the TV majors. To succeed, Fox will need a powerful battering ram and only one will do: the ratings magnet that is the NFL. And having been spurned twice before by the football league, Murdoch’s going to need all his cunning to get the NFL on side. But that's only the first step in a campaign to challenge ESPN’s position as the champion of American TV sports.

The 1990s are about to end and ESPN is on a quest to strike down the competition before they can muster the strength to challenge it. But when ESPN starts using the NFL to gouge the nation’s cable providers, Fox Sports gets an opportunity to dominate regional sports TV. And as Fox steps up its attacks, ESPN soon discovers that it has to take drastic action to stop an exodus of viewers.

It’s 2005 and new ESPN programming chief John Skipper’s out to cement the brand’s market dominance by buying up more sports rights. With ESPN spending big, Fox Sports will need more than its broadcast network and Fox Sports Net regional channels to stay in contention. It needs its own 24-hour national sports network. And that means that after years of shadow boxing, Fox Sports and ESPN are about to get in the ring and go head to head for the first time.

It’s 2015 and Fox Sports 1 is in a rut. Its attempt to topple ESPN has barely dented the defences of the Disney-controlled sports media giant. Not that Fox is about to give up. It's looking to former ESPN producer Jamie Horowitz to craft a studio programming strategy that can suck viewers away from the market leader. But even as Fox readies for another round, the very foundations of the cable sports business that built ESPN are starting to give way. Big Tech’s coming for sports and that’s going to force change at both ESPN and Fox.

Heavyweight champions ESPN and FS1 are competing for cable, as legacy networks hop off the bench and onto the field. On-air talent remain caught in the middle. Throw in a global pandemic and an increasingly digital-first media landscape, and you’re in for one heck-of-game. For our very own post-season analysis, we’re talking to Richard Deitsch, a sports writer at The Athletic and host of the Sports Media Podcast. He’s guiding us through the wide world of sports broadcasting both on screen and behind the scenes, plus what the future has in store.