The
Fox Broadcasting Company (FBC),
commonly referred to as Fox (often stylized
FOX), is an American
television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of
Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on
October 9, 1986, from 2004 to 2009 Fox was the
highest-
rated broadcast network in
the 18–49 demographic. In the 2007–08 season, Fox became the most
popular network in America in household ratings for the first time
in its history, replacing
CBS. CBS took back the
top spot in the 2008-09 season, though Fox remains a solid
runner-up.
The Fox
Broadcasting Company and its affiliates operate many entertainment
channels internationally -- including Argentina
, Australia, Brazil
, Bulgaria
, Chile
, Germany
, Japan
, India
, Italy
, Mexico
, Portugal
, South America,
Central America, Serbia
, South Korea
, Spain
, and
Turkey
-- although these do not necessarily air the same
programming as the U.S. network. Most viewers in
Canada
have access to at least one U.S. Fox
affiliate, although most of Fox's primetime programming is subject
to Canadian
simultaneous
substitution regulations.
The network is named after sister company
20th Century Fox, and indirectly for
producer
William Fox, who
founded one of the movie studio's predecessors,
Fox Film.
History
Twentieth Century-Fox was involved
in television production as early as the 1950s. The company
produced several
syndicated
programs during this era. In November 1956, 20th Century-Fox
purchased 50% of the
NTA Film
Network, an early syndicator of films and television programs.
The film network was launched as a new "fourth" television network.
20th Century-Fox would also produce original content for the NTA
Network. The film network effort would fail after a few years, but
Fox continued to dabble in television through its production arm,
TCF Television Productions, producing series such as
Perry Mason for the
Big Three television
networks.
1980s: Building a network
Groundwork for a new Fox network was laid in March 1985 by News
Corporation's $250-million purchase of 50 percent of TCF
Holdings, the parent company of the 20th Century Fox movie studio.
In May 1985, News Corporation agreed to pay $1.55 billion to
acquire
independent
television stations in six major U.S. cities from
John Kluge's company,
Metromedia.
These stations were WNEW-TV in New York City
, WTTG
in Washington,
D.C.
, KTTV
in Los Angeles
, KRIV-TV
in Houston
, WFLD
in Chicago
, and KRLD-TV
in Dallas
.
A seventh
station, ABC-affiliated WCVB-TV
in Boston
, was part of
the original transaction but was spun off in a separate, concurrent
deal to the Hearst Corporation as
part of a right of first
refusal related to that station's 1982 sale to
Metromedia.
In October 1985, 20th Century Fox announced its intentions to form
an independent television system, a
fourth television network which
would compete with the three major U.S. television networks (ABC,
CBS, and
NBC). The plans were
to use the combination of the Fox studios and the former Metromedia
stations to both produce and distribute programming. Organizational
plans for the network were held off until the Metromedia
acquisitions cleared regulatory hurdles. Then, in December 1985,
Rupert Murdoch agreed to pay $325 million to acquire the rest of
the studio from his original partner,
Marvin Davis.
The purchase of the Metromedia stations
was approved by the Federal Communications
Commission in March 1986; the New York and Dallas outlets were
subsequently renamed WNYW
and KDAF
respectively. These first six stations, then broadcasting to
22 percent of the nation's households, became known as the
Fox Television Stations
group.
The network's first program was a late-night talk show,
The Late
Show, which debuted on October 9, 1986 with
Joan Rivers as host. After a strong start, the
show quickly eroded in the ratings and by early 1987 Rivers had
quit and the show was being hosted by a succession of guest
hosts.
The network debuted in prime time on April 5, 1987, with the series
Married... with
Children and
The
Tracey Ullman Show. It added one new show per week over
the next several weeks, with the series
21 Jump Street,
Mr. President and
Duet completing its Sunday
schedule. Beginning on July 11, the network rolled out its
inaugural Saturday night schedule with a two-hour movie premiere of
Werewolf, and over the
next three weeks the series
The New Adventures of Beans
Baxter,
Karen's Song
and
Down and Out in
Beverly Hills were added. Both
Karen's Song and
Down and Out in Beverly Hills were cancelled by the start
of the
1987-88
television season, the network's first fall launch, and were
replaced by
Second
Chance and
Women in Prison.
The network had already decided to cancel
The Late Show,
and had a replacement series called
The Wilton North Report in
development, when the show began a ratings resurgence with its
final guest host, comedian
Arsenio
Hall.
Wilton North stiffed within just a few weeks,
however, and the network was unable to reach a deal with Hall to
return when it hurriedly revived
The Late Show in early
1988. The show went back to guest hosts again, eventually selecting
Ross Shafer as its permanent host, and
was permanently cancelled by October 1988, while Hall signed a deal
with
Paramount Television to
develop his own
syndicated
late night talk show,
The
Arsenio Hall Show.
The network added its third night of programming in the
1989
television season. It gradually added nights of programming
over the next few years, airing on all seven nights for the first
time in the
1993
television season. The 1989 season also featured a midseason
replacement series,
The
Simpsons; ranked at a three-way tie for 28th place in the
Nielsen ratings, it became the first Fox series to break the Top
30.
Unlike the three larger networks, which aired prime time
programming from 8 to 11 p.m. Mondays to Saturdays and 7 to 11 p.m.
Sundays, Fox has traditionally avoided programming the 10 p.m.
hour, leaving that hour to affiliates to program locally. The
network did schedule programming in the 10 p.m. hour on Sunday
nights between 1989 and 1992, but never added 10 p.m. programming
on any other night.
Except for KDAF (which was sold to
Renaissance Broadcasting in 1995
and became a
WB affiliate
at the same time), all the original stations are still part of the
Fox network today.
Clarke Ingram, who
maintains a memorial website to the failed
DuMont Television Network, has
suggested that Fox is a revival of DuMont, since Metromedia was a
successor to the DuMont corporation and the Metromedia television
stations formed the nucleus of the Fox network. WNYW (originally
known as WABD) and WTTG were two of the three original
owned-and-operated stations of
the DuMont network.
Fox is a full member of the
North American
Broadcasters Association and the
National Association of
Broadcasters.
1990s: Rise into mainstream success
Despite a few successful shows, the network did not have a
significant market share until the mid-1990s, when News Corp.
bought more TV station groups. The first was
New World Communications, which had
signed an
affiliation
deal with Fox in 1994.
Later, in 2001, Fox bought several stations
owned by Chris-Craft
Industries and its subsidiaries BHC Communications and United
Television (most of these were UPN affiliates, although one
later became
a Fox O&O). This made Fox one of the largest owners of
television stations in the United States. Although Fox was growing
rapidly as a network and had established itself as a presence, it
was still not considered a major competitor to the
big three broadcast networks
(ABC, CBS, and NBC).
This all changed when Fox lured the
National Football League away from
CBS in 1993. They signed a huge contract
to broadcast the
NFC,
which included luring
Pat Summerall,
John Madden,
Dick Stockton,
Matt Millen,
James Brown, and
Terry Bradshaw (as well as many
behind-the-scenes production personnel) from CBS Sports as well. At
first, many were skeptical of this whole move, but the first year
was a rousing success, and Fox was officially on the map for
good.
The early and mid-1990s saw the launch of several soap-opera dramas
aimed at younger audiences that became quick hits:
Beverly Hills, 90210,
Melrose Place,
New York Undercover and
Party of Five. September 1993
saw the heavy promotion and debut of a short-lived Western with
science-fiction elements,
The Adventures of Brisco
County, Jr. However, it was the Friday night show that
debuted immediately following it,
The
X-Files, which would find long-lasting success, and would
be Fox's first series to crack Nielsen's year-end Top 25.
The sketch-comedy series
In Living
Color created many memorable characters (and launched the
careers of future movie superstars
Jim
Carrey,
Damon Wayans,
Keenen Ivory Wayans,
Jamie Foxx, and "Fly Girl" dancer
Jennifer Lopez).
MADtv, another sketch-comedy series
that debuted in 1995, became a solid competitor to NBC's
Saturday Night Live for
over a decade and the most successful show on Saturday
nights.
Fox would expand to seven nights of programming a week by 1993,
which included scheduling the breakout hit
The Simpsons
opposite NBC's
The Cosby
Show as one of Fox's initial Thursday night offerings in
the fall of 1990 (along with future hit
Beverly Hills,
90210) after only a half-season of success on Sunday nights.
The show thrived in its new timeslot, helping to launch
Martin, another Fox hit
in 1992;
The Simpsons returned to Sunday nights in the
fall of 1994, and has been there since.
An attempt to make a larger effort to program Saturday nights by
moving
Married...with Children,
Martin and two
other long-forgotten new sitcoms to the night at the beginning of
the 1996-97 season backfired with the public as it resulted in a
short cancellation of
America's Most Wanted that was
criticized by law enforcement and public officials, and roundly
rejected by the viewing public, which brought swift cancellation to
the newer series, and
Married... and
Martin
quickly returned to their previous nights. Two months later a
revised schedule featuring a new and encore episode of
COPS, and the revived
America's Most Wanted: America
Fights Back was launched, and this schedule has been American
broadcast television's most unchanging night for fourteen
seasons.
Notable shows that debuted in the late 1990s include the quirky
dramedy Ally
McBeal and traditional sitcom
That '70s Show, Fox's
second-longest-running live-action sitcom behind
Married...
with Children.
Building around its flagship
The Simpsons, Fox has been
relatively successful with animated shows.
King of the Hill began in 1997;
Family Guy and
Futurama began in 1999 and were canceled in
2002 and 2003, respectively. However, the network commissioned new
episodes of
Family Guy that began in 2005 due to strong
DVD sales and highly rated cable reruns on
Adult Swim of
Cartoon Network -- and
Comedy Central commissioned a new
season of
Futurama to begin in 2010. Less successful
efforts included
The Critic,
which starred
Jon Lovitz from
Saturday Night Live
(originally airing on ABC then moved to Fox before being canceled),
and
The PJs, (which was later
broadcast on
The
WB).
In the 90s, Fox launched its set of cable channels --
FX,
Fox News
Channel, FXM (currently
Fox Movie
Channel), a controlling interest in the
Fox Sports Net regional sports networks,
Speed Channel, Fox Sports World
(currently
Fox Soccer Channel),
and
Fox Sports en
Espanol.
2000s: The Idol effect
Fox arguably hit a few bumps in its programming during 1999 and the
early 2000s. Many staple shows of the 1990s had ended or were on
the decline. During this time, Fox put much of its efforts into
producing
reality fare with
subjects often seen as extravagant, shocking, and/or distasteful.
These included shows such as
Who Wants to Marry a
Multi-Millionaire?,
Temptation Island, and
Married by America. The most
successful of these shows was
Joe
Millionaire, whose season-one finale was watched by over
40 million people. Its second season was a ratings disappointment,
however. During this time, Fox also featured weekly shows such as
World's Wildest Police
Videos and
When
Animals Attack!.
Between 2000 and 2009, Fox added the cable channels
Fox College Sports,
Fuel TV,
Fox Reality
Channel and
Fox Business
Network -- while FXM became
Fox
Movie Channel and Fox Sports World changed to
Fox Soccer Channel.
After shedding most of these shows, Fox regained a ratings foothold
with acclaimed dramas such as
24,
The
O.C.,
House and
Bones, and comedies such
as
The Bernie Mac Show
and
Malcolm in the
Middle. By 2005, Fox's most popular show by far was the
talent search
American Idol,
peaking at up to 37 million viewers on certain episodes and being
the nation's highest-rated program in the 2004–05 season.
House, airing after
Idol on Tuesday nights and
having had a successful run of summer repeats in 2005, positioned
itself as a top-ten hit in the 2005–06 season.
Fox hit a milestone in February 2005 by scoring its first-ever
sweeps victory among all
viewers. This was largely due to the broadcast of
Super Bowl XXXIX, but also on the strength
of
American Idol,
24,
House, and
The
O.C. By the end of the 2004–05 television season, Fox ranked
No. 1 for the first time in its history among the 18–49
demographic most appealing to advertisers.
Another milestone came on May 21, 2008, Fox took the #1
general households rating crown for the first time, based on the
strength of
Super Bowl XLII and
American Idol.
It was estimated in 2003 that Fox was viewable by 96.18% of all
U.S. households, reaching a total of 102,565,710 houses in the
United States. Fox has 180 VHF and UHF
owned-and-operated or
affiliate stations in the United States
and U.S. possessions.
Analog broadcasting on Fox largely ended on June 12, 2009 as part
of the transition to digital television.
As a newer
broadcast network, Fox still has a number of low-power television affiliates,
covering markets like Youngstown, Ohio
(WYFX
) and
Santa Barbara,
California
(KKFX
),
broadcasting in analog format. In some cases, including both
of these markets, these stations are repeated by digital television
subchannels owned by the analog station's parent company.
Programming
Fox currently programs 19.5 hours of programming per week. It
provides 15 hours of
prime time
programming to owned-and-operated and affiliated stations: 8-10
p.m. Monday to Saturday (all times ET/PT) and 7–10 p.m. on Sundays.
One and a half hours of late night programming is offered on
Saturdays from 11:00 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. Weekend daytime programming
consists of the infomercial block
Weekend Marketplace (Saturdays from
10:00 a.m. to noon) and the hour-long political news program
Fox News Sunday (time slot
may vary).
Sports programming is also provided, usually on weekends (albeit
not every weekend year-round), and most commonly between 12-4 or
12-8 p.m. on Sundays (during football season, slightly less during
NASCAR season) and 3:30–7 p.m. on Saturday afternoons (during
baseball season).
Prime time
Returning comedies are in
salmon; new comedies are in
pink; returning
dramas are in
green;
new dramas are in
blue; returning reality shows are in
yellow; new reality
shows are in
gold;
returning game shows are in
orange; new game shows are in
beige; sports
programming is in
purple.
All times are
Eastern and
Pacific (subtract one hour for
Central and
Mountain time).
Winter 2010
News
Unlike the
Big Three,
Fox does not air national morning or evening news programs.
However, the network's parent company owns the
Fox News Channel, which was launched in
1996 and is now available through virtually all cable and satellite
providers in the United States. Despite the common ownership, Fox
News is largely autonomous from the Fox network, although FNC does
produce some news coverage carried by the broadcast network,
usually separate from the coverage aired on the cable channel, as
Fox Report and
Studio B anchor
Shepard Smith anchors most primetime news
presentations on the Fox network, especially during political news
events (which are anchored by
Bret Baier
on the Fox News Channel).
Specifically, the Fox network airs coverage of the
State of the Union address,
presidential
debates, national election coverage, as well as live breaking
news bulletins from time to time branded as "Fox News Alerts".
(Carriage of such special coverage may vary from station to
station, and is often limited to events occurring within the
network's usual primetime block. For example, unlike the Big Three,
the Fox network does not generally provide coverage of major
political convention speeches,
which usually occur during the 10:00 p.m. ET hour when many
affiliates air local news.)
The public affairs show
Fox News
Sunday also airs on the Fox network on Sunday mornings and
is later repeated on FNC. Finally, the Fox News Edge service
provides national and international news reports for local Fox
affiliates to use in their own newscasts.
In prime time, Fox first tried its hand at a news show in 1988 with
an hour-long weekly newsmagazine called
The Reporters, which was produced by the
same team behind the FTSG-distributed syndicated tabloid program
A Current
Affair. After two years with low ratings, this program was
cancelled.
Fox News Break news capsules segments produced
and compiled by WNYW and KTTV reporters also aired during network
primetime from the network's launch in 1987 until about 1994.
After FNC launched in 1996, the network tried again in 1998 with
Fox Files, hosted by Fox News
anchors
Catherine Crier and
Jon Scott, as well as a team of correspondents. It
lasted a little over a year before being cancelled. During the
sweeps of the 2002–03 TV season, Fox tried another attempt with
The Pulse, hosted by
Fox News Channel's
Shepard Smith.
Many Fox stations have a local morning newscast that airs on
average three to four hours, including an extra two hours from 7 to
9 a.m. as a local alternative to nationwide morning programming.
Fox, however, did air a nationally based morning show called
Fox After Breakfast
(which was formerly
Breakfast Time on Fox's
FX cable channel) between 1996 and 1998,
which aired on all affiliates from 9 to 10 a.m. as opposed to the
other major networks airing theirs from 7 to 9 a.m.
Fox tried its hand
again in 2001, at a morning show called Good Day Live, inspired by
KTTV's Good Day L.A.—this time in syndication
mode. The show did not fare well in ratings and was canceled
in 2005. On January 22, 2007, Fox premiered
The Morning Show with Mike
and Juliet for its O&O stations, hosted by
Mike Jerrick and
Juliet
Huddy of the Fox News Channel's
DaySide program. The show was lighter and more
oriented towards entertainment, though the show's focus often
changed when major news stories occurred. In February 2007, the
show was syndicated to many
ABC,
NBC,
and
CBS affiliates where a
MyNetworkTV or Fox station did not carry it; it
was cancelled in June 2009.
Sports
When the network launched, Fox management, having seen the critical
role that sports programming (soccer programming in particular) had
played in the growth of the British satellite service
British Sky Broadcasting, believed
that sports, and specifically professional football, would be the
engine that would make Fox a major network the quickest. In 1987,
after ABC initially hedged on renewing its contract to carry
Monday Night
Football, Fox made an offer to the
NFL for the same amount ABC had
been paying, about $13 million per game at the time. However, the
NFL, in part because Fox had not yet established itself as a major
network, renewed its contract with ABC.
Six years later, when the football contract was up for renewal, Fox
made a $1.58 billion bid for 4 years of rights to the
NFC. The NFL selected the Fox
bid, stripping
CBS of football for the
first time since
1955. The event
placed Fox on a par with the "big three" broadcast networks and
ushered in an era of growth for the NFL. Fox's acquisition of the
NFL rights also quickly led toward Fox reaching a deal with New
World Communications to change the affiliation of 10 of their
stations to Fox. The rights gave Fox many new viewers and a
platform for advertising its other shows.
With a sports division now established with the arrival of the NFL,
Fox acquired over-air broadcast rights to the
National Hockey League (1994–99),
Major League Baseball (since
1996), and
NASCAR auto racing (since 2001).
Since
2007, Fox has aired the Bowl
Championship Series college football games, except for the
Rose
Bowl
, which remains on ABC. The package also
includes the new BCS Championship Game, except once every four
years, when the game is played at the Rose Bowl.
Children's programming
Fox began airing children's programming in 1990 when it launched
the Fox Kids Network. Its children's programming featured many
cartoons and some live-action series (particularly fantasy action
programs) including
Power
Rangers (currently airing on various
Disney-owned networks:
ABC,
Toon Disney, and
Jetix
channels around the world),
Bobby's
World,
X-Men,
The Tick,
Eerie, Indiana and
Goosebumps. When The WB added
the
Kids' WB programming block in 1995,
Warner Bros. Animation-produced
Tiny Toon Adventures,
Animaniacs and later
Batman: The Animated
Series, (all of which originated either on Fox Kids or in
syndication) moved to Kids' WB with new productions and original
shows included.
Fox would abandon Fox Kids after selling the children's division
and the former Fox Family Channel (now
ABC
Family) to
The Walt Disney
Company in 2002 and then sell the four hours of Saturday
morning time to
4Kids
Entertainment.
4Kids Entertainment ended its TV block at the end of 2008 due to a
payment and distribution dispute with Fox that has since been
settled, with a last airing on December 27, 2008.. Fox did not
lease the block to another provider, owing that the competition
from cable networks and
E/I regulations for
broadcast stations have made putting on a competitive children's
block virtually impossible. Two hours of the Saturday block have
been given back to their affiliates for Saturday morning newscasts
or affiliate purchased E/I programming on January 3, 2009, while
the latter two hours became a network-managed
infomercial block called
Weekend Marketplace . However,
This Week in
Baseball, an E/I show produced by
Major League Baseball, was retained
for the
2009
season. It airs a half-hour before the start of the
weekly game telecast.
Fox HD
Fox began broadcasting in
HDTV in
720p
on September 12, 2004 with a series of NFL football games. The
network has no digital on-screen graphic logo in the bottom
right-hand corner of the screen on the HD feed, except for a
ten-second promotional sweep of a
Fox HD, presented by DirecTV acknowledgement (although the SD feed
does); instead a trigger in Fox's program delivery system at each
station displays the affiliate station's logo bug in the 16:9
right-hand corner of the screen, which disappears during commercial
breaks (during local pre-emptions of Fox programming the logo does
remain on display even though the station is not airing the
programming). However, network or affiliate bugs are not displayed
during Fox Sports programming.
During some high-profile or live programming such as
American
Idol and
So You Think You Can Dance however, Fox does
display their network logo in the 4:3
safe
area and forgoes the affiliate's logo, mainly for promotional
consideration due to
fair use of clips from
each series by other media outlets (et al., news programming and
clip programs such as those seen on
E! and
TV Guide Network).
Fox is the only commercial television network (broadcast, cable or
satellite) to air programs in widescreen on its digital feed that
are not available in HD; programs produced in this format were
identified as being presented in "Fox High Resolution Widescreen"
from 2001 to 2006, but these enhanced definition programs are
currently not advertised by any name. Prior to the launch of its HD
feed in 2004, some sitcoms and drama series were presented in this
format, but now reality, talk, and game shows (
American
Idol being the lone exception, as it is presented in High
Definition) are only presented in the enhanced definition
widescreen mode. The children's sports show
This Week in Baseball began being
shown in widescreen in 2009, while Sunday political talk program
Fox News Sunday converted to the format when
Fox News Channel launched their new HD
facilities in November 2008.
MADtv
was produced to air only in 4:3 until September 2008, likely due to
a mix of stations airing the show at differing times than the
mandated 11pm timeslot and unable to offer it on the live air in
16:9, and the show's producers not making the switch to the
format.
Fox is unique among US broadcasters in distributing its network HD
feed over satellite to affiliates as an
MPEG transport stream intended to be
delivered bit-for-bit to viewers' television sets. During network
time, local commercials are inserted using a transport stream
splicer . The affiliates of most other networks decode compressed
satellite network video feeds and then re-encode them for final
over-the-air emission.
Slogans, logos and more
Station standardization
During the early 1990s, Fox began having stations branded as "Fox",
then the channel number, with the call signs nearby.
For instance,
WNYW in New York City,WTTG in
Washington, D.C., and WAGA
in Atlanta,
Georgia, are referred to as Fox 5. By the
mid-to-late 1990s, the call letters were minimized to be just
barely readable to FCC requirements. This marked the start of the
trend for other networks to apply such naming schemes, especially
at
CBS, which uses the
CBS Mandate on most of its
owned-and-operated stations
("O&O").
Starting in 2006, more standardization of the O&Os began to
take place both on the air and online. All the O&Os began
adopting an on-air look more closely aligned with the Fox News
Channel. This included changing the logos to the same red, white
and blue rotating box logo. Since News Corporation's acquisition of
MySpace, some Fox O&Os launched websites
that look the same and have similar addresses, such as
MyFoxDC.com.
Network slogans
| Year |
Slogan |
| 1987 |
Don't Let Fox Weekend Pass You By |
| 1988 |
This is the Year |
| 1990 |
It's on Fox |
| 1992 |
You're Watching Fox |
| 1993 |
Fox: You're Watching It |
| 1994 |
It Could Only Happen on Fox |
| 1994 |
The Spirit of Fox/We're Gonna Keep it on
Fox |
| 1995 |
Cool Like Us |
| 1996 |
Non-Stop Fox |
| 1996 |
Fox 10 Years |
| 1997 |
Just One Fox |
| 2002 |
FOX NOW |
| 2007 |
Fox 20 Years |
| 2007 |
Fox On |
| 2008 |
SO FOX |
Logos
Over the years, the Fox Broadcasting Company has used a few logos,
most of which have the familiar trademark
searchlights on either side of "FOX".
In 1986, the year of its inaugurating television service, Fox got
its first official logo, which was based on 20th Century Fox's
longtime logo with the noted difference being that the only wording
in the logo was the "FOX" in capital letters. It also contained the
signature Fox searchlights and the double-pane platform under the
"FOX" typing (Fox Movie Channel currently uses a logo also modeled
after the 20th Century Fox logo).
In 1993, the original logo was revised (however keeping the
original logo intact with the new logo until 1994), with the "FOX"
wordmark revised, and the angle changed so that the whole logo
faces the viewer head-on. The following year, the logo was again
revised, dropping the searchlights, but keeping the panes.
The 1993 logo returned in 1996, without the panes underneath the
network name, but leaving the searchlights and Fox wordmark. The
current version of the logo was introduced in 1999 when the 20th
Century Fox searchlights were removed completely and only the
network name was visible. Despite this, the searchlight theme
remains an integral part of News Corporation's Fox branding
efforts, still seen in the Fox News Channel logo, and in the new
universal station logo utilized by the FTSG stations, those former
Fox stations sold to
Local TV LLC, and
several of
Tribune
Broadcasting's Fox stations, in addition to being used by some
other Fox affiliates not related to FTSG, Local TV and Tribune. The
older 1996-1999 Fox logo with searchlights is still used by many of
the network's affiliates in their logos, also being an alternate
logo from 2000 onwards, plus also being part of an alternate
version of the Fox Sports logo. The searchlights were still seen in
FX's logo until a rebranding effort
in 2008.
Differences between Fox and the "Big Three" networks
Fox only airs two hours of network programming during the
prime time hours (three hours on Sundays),
compared to the three hours (four on Sundays) by the other major
networks (except for
The
CW). This allows for many of its stations to air local news
during the 10 p.m. (eastern) time slot. Fox's original reason for
the reduced number of prime time hours was to avoid fulfilling the
FCC's requirements at the time to be considered a network and to be
free of resulting regulations, though FCC rules have been relaxed
since then.
Fox also does not air soap operas or any other network daytime
programming (game shows, talk shows) despite being a major network.
Because of this, affiliates have more time for syndicated
programming. (Fox produces two syndicated daytime courtroom shows,
Divorce Court and
Judge Alex.)
Local news
At least half of Fox's 180 O&O and affiliated stations air
local news in the 10-11 p.m. (9-10 p.m. CT/MT) timeslot. The
newscast schedules on Fox stations vary more from station to
station than ABC, CBS and NBC's affiliates. Some Fox stations have
a newscast schedule similar to the Big Three's affiliates along
with the added late evening newscast at 10 p.m. and a late
afternoon newscast extended by a half-hour competing with the
national evening newscasts, while others only have a 10 p.m.
newscast.
Miami's
WSVN
has the most local news of any Fox station with
roughly 54 hours per week, followed by Tampa's WTVT
with
roughly 52.5 hours per week. Only a few Fox stations that
air an 11 p.m. (or 10 p.m.) newscast along with a 10 p.m. (or 9
p.m.) newscast.
WTVT in Tampa,
KDFW
in Dallas/Fort Worth, WAGA in Atlanta,
WOFL
in Orlando, WJBK
in Detroit,
KMSP in
Minneapolis-St. Paul, KSAZ
in Phoenix,
WTTG Washington, D.C., and WFXT
in Boston
are the only Fox-owned stations to have a 11p.m./10 p.m. newscast
in the Eastern Time Zone, Central and Mountain Time Zones with only WFXT, WTTG, and
KSAZ airing it
every night. WDAF-TV
in Kansas City, WITI
in
Milwaukee, WBRC
in
Birmingham, KOKH
in Oklahoma
City, WTIC-TV
in Hartford, WZTV
in
Nashville, KTVI
in St. Louis
and WSVN in Miami
are some of the few non-O&Os airing a 10pm (or 9 p.m.) and a
11pm (or 10 p.m.) newscast.
Stations that don't air local news air
syndicated programming, usually
off-network sitcoms in that timeslot.
Some small market Fox
affiliates outsource their newscasts to a Big Three station in the
market (either situation may change in the future as more Fox
stations start their own news divisions), although markets as large
as Pittsburgh
also do this where Fox affiliate WPGH-TV
airs a 10PM news from NBC affiliate WPXI
after WPGH
shut down its news division in 2006. In some smaller
markets with duopolies, the
Fox affiliate usually airs a 10 p.m. newscast from a sister
station, such as Youngstown, Ohio where CBS affiliate WKBN-TV
airs a 10 p.m. newscast on its sister station, Fox
affiliate WYFX.
Upstart Fox local news divisions do not run a full slate of
newscasts (i.e., morning, midday, early and late evening newscasts
plus news on weekend evenings and possibly weekend mornings),
instead starting with a 10 p.m. newscast then gradually adding
other newscasts. Between September 14 and September 21, 2009, six
Fox affiliates owned by
Tribune
Company added an early evening and/or midday newscast; Fox has
pushed its affiliates to carry more newscasts (especially ones in
midday and early evening timeslots) for several years, prior to the
formation of Fox News Channel.
The
largest market with a Fox affiliate that airs no news whatsoever is
Buffalo, New
York
, where WUTV
has long
opted for sitcom reruns instead; that station is within range of
the Toronto
area and targets Southern Ontario heavily with their
programs and advertising instead of launching a news operation in
an area with heavy news coverage already from other stations in
Buffalo, Hamilton
and Toronto. Its sister station, MyNetworkTV affiliate
WNYO-TV
, does air local news at 10PM that is produced by
NBC affilaite WGRZ
,
however.
Criticism
News
Although the Fox network itself does not carry any national,
regularly scheduled news programming other than
Fox News
Sunday, both this program and the network's breaking-news
coverage are produced by the
Fox News
Channel, which has been the subject of
controversy from time to
time.
Indecency
Controversy surrounded the network in 2002 and 2003 over
obscenities, expressed respectively by
Cher and
Nicole Richie, aired live on the
network's broadcasts of the
Billboard Music Awards on its
affiliates in the
Eastern and
Central Time Zones
despite the use of five-second
audio
delays; the indecent material was edited out on broadcasts in
the
Mountain Time Zone and
westward. Both of the obscene instances were condemned by the
Parents Television
Council and named by them among the worst instances on
television from 2001 to 2004. PTC members filed tens of thousands
of complaints to the
Federal Communications
Commission over the broadcasts. The Fox network's subsequent
apology was labeled a "sham" by PTC president
L. Brent
Bozell III, who argued that Fox could have easily used audio
delay to edit out the obscene language. As the FCC was
investigating the broadcasts, in 2004, Fox announced that it would
begin extending live broadcast delays to 5 minutes from its
standard 5 or 10 seconds to more easily be able to edit out
obscenities uttered over the air. In June 2007, in the case
Fox
et al. v. Federal
Communications Commission, the
U.S.
Second
Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the FCC could not issue
indecency fines against the Fox network because the FCC does not
have the authority to fine broadcasters for fleeting expletives,
such as in the case of the Billboard Awards. The FCC eventually
decided to appeal the Second Circuit Court's finding. The U.S.
Supreme Court granted certiorari and oral arguments in FCC v. Fox,
et al., began November 4, 2008.
The Parents Television Council has criticized many popular Fox
shows for perceived indecent content, such as
American Dad!,
Arrested Development,
The Simpsons,
Family Guy,
Hell's Kitchen,
Married... with Children,
Prison Break, and
That '70s Show. The Council sometimes
has gone even as far as to file complaints with the
Federal Communications
Commission regarding indecent content within Fox programming,
having done so for
That '70s Show and
Married by America, having
successfully been able to make the FCC fine the Fox network nearly
$1 million for
Married by America. Also, Fox
programming has been chosen by the PTC for its weekly "Worst TV
Show of the Week" feature more often than programming from any
other broadcast network.
See also
References
- Fox wins TV season on strong 'Idol' finish
-
http://tvbythenumbers.com/2009/05/27/fox-sweeps-age-demos-for-2008-9-season-cbs-wins-average-viewership/19457
- The DuMont Television Network: Channel Nine
- David Cook Wasn't the Only Winner on Wednesday, as
'Idol' Ratings Spike
-
http://www.moviestaff.com/directory/networks/fox_broadcasting.htm
-
http://www.nowpublic.com/culture/glee-tv-show-going-hiatus-four-months-fans-not-happy-2525832.html
- Official Website : Where To Watch?
-
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/161775-_Morning_Show_With_Mike_and_Juliet_to_End_in_Fall.php?rssid=20101&q=mike+and+juliet
-
http://app.quotemedia.com/data/newsItem.htm?webmasterId=92403&storyId=14004012&topic=KDE
-
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117996360.html?categoryid=14&cs=1
- Fox stations to splice HD feed at local
level
- UCLA TV Violence Monitoring Project: Operating
Premises and Stipulations
- Parloff, Roger. Bleep Deprivation. Fortune:
March 19, 2007.
- TV's Worst Clips, 2001-2004. Parents Television Council
- Fox mulls 5-minute delay to squash dirty words.
Media Life Magazine: January 27, 2004.
- [1]
- Labaton, Stephen. Court Rebuffs F.C.C. on Fines for Indecency
(page 2 of 2). The New York Times: June 5,
2007
- [2]
- FAMILY GUY - Parents Television Council Family TV
Guide Show Page
- http://www.parentstv.org/ptc/shows/main.asp?shwid=2332
- PTC list of Best and Worst shows of the 1996-97 TV
season
- Content from the March 24, 2004 episode of "That
'70s Show"
- Fox "Worst of the Week" articles by Parents Television Council during
the middle of 2004: * June 6, 2004: Oliver Beene * June 20, 2004: The Casino * June 27, 2004: The Simple Life
2 * July 4, 2004: Quintuplets * July 11, 2004: Method &
Red * August 8, 2004: Quintuplets * August 15, 2004: The Casino
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