Fox Broadcasting Company
Encyclopedia
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox (and stylized as FOX), is an American commercial broadcasting
television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group
, part of Rupert Murdoch
's News Corporation
. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated
broadcast network in the 18–49 demographic from 2004 to 2009. 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.
The Fox Broadcasting Company and its affiliates operate many entertainment channels internationally, 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.
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. Following the demise of the DuMont Television Network
, NTA was launched as a new "fourth 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
.
. 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 in Dallas. A seventh station, 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. After that point, some stations which affiliated with the network in the weeks before the April 1987 primetime launch, such as Milwaukee's WCGV-TV
, signed affiliation agreements on the condition that they would not have to carry The Late Show due to the program's ratings weakness.
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 canceled 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 lasted 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 canceled 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 pm Mondays to Saturdays and 7 to 11 pm Sundays, Fox has traditionally avoided programming the 10 pm hour, leaving that hour to affiliates to program locally. The network did schedule programming in the 10 pm hour on Sunday nights between 1989 and 1992, but never added 10 pm 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 or at least a linear descendant of DuMont, since Metromedia was spun off from DuMont and Metromedia's 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 station
s of the DuMont network.
Fox is a full member of the North American Broadcasters Association
and the National Association of Broadcasters
.
. This allowed Fox to make money in ways forbidden to the established networks, since during its first years it was considered to be merely a large group of stations. By comparison, DuMont was hampered by numerous regulatory roadblocks, most notably a ban on acquiring more stations since its minority owner, Paramount Pictures
owned two television stations. Combined with DuMont's three television stations, this put DuMont at the legal limit at the time. Also, Murdoch was more than willing to open his wallet to get and keep programming and talent. DuMont, in contrast, operated on a shoestring budget and was unable to keep the programs and stars it had. Most of the other startup networks (such as The WB
, UPN
and The CW
) followed this model as well.
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). Until the early 1990s, most Fox stations were still essentially independents. The network did not have significant market share until the mid-1990s, when News Corp. bought more 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.
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. The NFC deal, in fact, was the impetus for the affiliation deal with New World; many of New World's stations were longstanding CBS affiliates. After acquiring the NFL rights, Fox was 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 20.
The sketch-comedy series In Living Color
created many memorable characters (and launched the careers of future movie stars Jim Carrey
, Jamie Foxx
, Damon Wayans
, Keenen Ivory Wayans
, 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. Madtv ended in 2009.
Fox would expand to a full week's worth of programming in 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 performed well in its new Thursday night slot, spending four seasons there and 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. Cops and AMW had for many years remained the anchors of the network's Saturday schedule, making it the most stable night in American broadcast television for over 14 years. America's Most Wanted ended it's 23 year run on Fox in June of 2011
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. By the 1997–98 season, Fox had 3 shows in the Nielsen Top 20, The X-Files
which ranked 11th, King of the Hill
which ranked 15th, and The Simpsons
which ranked 17th.
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
. Futurama would be revived with four direct-to-DVD films between 2007–2009 and would return as a series in 2010 on Comedy Central
. 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
).
Throughout the 1990s, 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 (currently Fox Deportes).
, Temptation Island, Married by America
and Joe Millionaire
, as well as video clips shows such as World's Wildest Police Videos
and When Animals Attack!
After shedding most of these shows, Fox filled its lineup with acclaimed dramas such as 24
, The O.C.
, House
and Bones
, and comedies such as The Bernie Mac Show
, Malcolm in the Middle
, and Arrested Development. 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 No.1 general households rating crown for the first time, based on the strength of Super Bowl XLII
and American Idol.
Near the end of the 2000s, Fox launched a few series that proved to be powerful hits in different respects. In 2008, Fringe
debuted to high ratings and critical acclaim during its first season on Tuesdays; though its viewership declined through its run, the series has helped to reverse Fox's dwindling fortunes on Friday nights. In 2009, Fox launched Glee
to average ratings but positive reception from critics. Ratings picked up during the first season, and the show has been met with such media attention that it has formed a large loyal fanbase. The cast of the series has been acknowledged by notable people such as the President of the United States Barack Obama and Oprah Winfrey, who have each asked the cast to perform live for numerous national events. At the close of the decade, new comedies Raising Hope
and New Girl gave Fox its first ratings successes in live-action comedy in years.
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 also have digital signals on the digital subchannel
of a sister television station in the same market.
(Saturdays from 10:00 am 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).
Most of its primetime programming is produced by one of the production companies owned by News Corporation, usually 20th Century Fox Television
or Fox Television Studios
.
Fox's weekday programming differs from the "big three" networks in several significant ways: There is no morning newscast, no daytime television, no evening newscast, no third hour of primetime, and no late-night talk shows. Local affiliates either produce their own programming during these times or run syndicated shows.
, Fox does not currently air national morning or evening news programs, choosing to focus solely on their primetime schedule. 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. Fox News 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" or sometimes "Fox News Red 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 pm ET hour when many affiliates air local news. However the majority of Fox's O&O's and station groups do take weekday breaking news briefs.)
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 1995. Another failed attempt occurred in 1993, when Fox launched the newsmagazine Front Page
in an attempt to capture a younger demographic for such a program, with Ron Reagan
among its five hosts.
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 am 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 am as opposed to the other major networks airing theirs from 7 to 9 am 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 (owned and operated) 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.
, 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). From 2007 to 2010, Fox aired the Bowl Championship Series
college football games, except for the Rose Bowl
, which remained on ABC. The package also included the BCS Championship Game, except in 2010 when the game was played at the Rose Bowl.
In August 2011, Fox and mixed martial arts
promotion Ultimate Fighting Championship
(UFC) reached a multi-year deal. The agreement will include four live events in prime time or late night each year, the first time UFC has aired on broadcast television.
(currently airing on Nickelodeon
), 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.
in 720p
on September 12, 2004 with a series of NFL football games. The network had 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 (the SD feed did); 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. On some Fox shows, a hashtag rests above the affiliate's logo so viewers can talk about the show on Twitter
.
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 are currently unbranded.
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 HD when Fox News Channel
launched their new HD facilities in November 2008 (before the network's widescreen presentation effort went into effect in September 2010, it was the final Fox News program to be produced to fit the 4:3 safe area, as Fox News Channel itself converted to a full-time widescreen presentation on both their HD and standard definition channels in 2009). 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 11 pm 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. The final network show to convert to HD was Family Guy
as of their September 26, 2010 episode.
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.
Since late July 2010, when Fox began to broadcast their sports programming with graphics optimized for 16:9 displays rather than the 4:3 safe area, the network has asked cable and satellite providers to comply and use the No.10 Active Format Description
code they now send out over Fox programming, which has 16:9 content display in letterbox
ed mode on 4:3 screens and has graphical elements optimized for the 16:9 screen. Subsequently a number of Fox O&O's and affiliates also now send out the AFD No.10 flag over their HD local news and syndicated programming with graphical elements optimized for 16:9 to allow that programming to appear in widescreen format on 4:3 analog sets.
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 station
s ("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. After News Corporation's acquisition of the social networking site Myspace
(which it sold in June 2011), some Fox O&Os launched websites that look the same and have similar addresses, such as MyFoxDC.com.
s 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.
Fox also does not air soap operas or any other network daytime programming, such as game shows or 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
. Fox also produced two syndicated game shows, Don't Forget the Lyrics!
and Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?
, both of which previously aired on Fox in prime time. Both were cancelled in 2011 due to low ratings.
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 pm (or 10 pm) newscast along with a 10 pm (or 9 pm) 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 11 pm/10 p.m. newscast in the Eastern Time Zone
, Central and Mountain Time Zone
s 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, WXXA in Albany, WZTV
in Nashville, WVUE
in New Orleans, KTVI
in St. Louis, KOKI-TV
in Tulsa, KLRT in Little Rock, KPTV
in Portland (has 50 hours of news per week), Oregon, and WSVN in Miami are among the non-O&Os airing a 10 pm (or 9 pm) and a 11 pm (or 10 pm) newscast.
Stations that don't air local news air syndicated programming, usually off-network sitcoms in that time slot. 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 10 pm 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 pm newscast from a sister station, such as Youngstown, Ohio
where CBS
affiliate WKBN-TV
airs a 10 pm 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 pm 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 time slots) 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.
, and are regular subjects of controversy
. The network has also received some criticism for deciding not to carry scheduled news events such as presidential speeches at times in primetime in order to air regular entertainment programming (such as a speech in September 2009 which would have jeopardized the long-promoted fall premiere of Glee
had it aired).
and Nicole Richie
, aired live on the network's broadcasts of the Billboard Music Award
s 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 Federal Communications Commission v. Fox Television Stations
, 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. That fine was reduced to $91,000 after it was discovered that the FCC originally claimed to have received 159 complaints, it later admitted to only receiving 90, which came from only 23 people. Blogger Jeff Jarvis studied the complaints and realized that all but 2 were virtually identical
to each other, meaning that the $1.2 million judgment was based on original complaints written by a total of only three people. Armed with the new information, Fox promised to fight the fine.
The fine was ultimately reduced to $91,000 in January 2009.
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.
Commercial broadcasting
Commercial broadcasting is the broadcasting of television programs and radio programming by privately owned corporate media, as opposed to state sponsorship...
television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group
Fox Entertainment Group
The Fox Entertainment Group is an American entertainment industry company that owns film studios and terrestrial, cable, and direct broadcast satellite television properties...
, part of Rupert Murdoch
Rupert Murdoch
Keith Rupert Murdoch, AC, KSG is an Australian-American business magnate. He is the founder and Chairman and CEO of , the world's second-largest media conglomerate....
's News Corporation
News Corporation
News Corporation or News Corp. is an American multinational media conglomerate. It is the world's second-largest media conglomerate as of 2011 in terms of revenue, and the world's third largest in entertainment as of 2009, although the BBC remains the world's largest broadcaster...
. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated
Nielsen Ratings
Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...
broadcast network in the 18–49 demographic from 2004 to 2009. 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
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
. CBS took back the top spot in the 2008–09 season.
The Fox Broadcasting Company and its affiliates operate many entertainment channels internationally, 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
Simultaneous substitution
Simultaneous substitution is a practice mandated by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission requiring Canadian cable, direct broadcast satellite and multichannel multipoint distribution service television distribution companies to substitute the signal of a foreign or...
regulations.
The network is named after sister company 20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
, and indirectly for producer William Fox
William Fox (producer)
William Fox born Fried Vilmos was a pioneering Hungarian American motion picture executive who founded the Fox Film Corporation in 1915 and the Fox West Coast Theatres chain in the 1920s...
, who founded one of the movie studio's predecessors, Fox Film.
History
20th Century Fox20th Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
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
NTA Film Network
The NTA Film Network was an early American television network founded by Ely Landau in 1956. The network was not a full-time television network like CBS, NBC, or ABC. Rather, it operated on a part-time basis, broadcasting films and several first-run television programs from major Hollywood studios...
, an early syndicator of films and television programs. Following the demise of the DuMont Television Network
DuMont Television Network
The DuMont Television Network, also known as the DuMont Network, DuMont, Du Mont, or Dumont was one of the world's pioneer commercial television networks, rivalling NBC for the distinction of being first overall. It began operation in the United States in 1946. It was owned by DuMont...
, NTA was launched as a new "fourth network
Fourth television network
In American television terminology, a fourth network is a reference to a fourth broadcast television network, as opposed to the Big Three television networks that dominated US TV from the 1950s to the 1990s: ABC, CBS, and NBC....
". 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
Perry Mason
Perry Mason is a fictional character, a defense attorney who was the main character in works of detective fiction authored by Erle Stanley Gardner. Perry Mason was featured in more than 80 novels and short stories, most of which had a plot involving his client's murder trial...
for the Big Three television networks
Big Three Television Networks
The Big Three Television Networks are the three traditional commercial broadcast television networks in the United States: ABC, CBS and NBC...
.
1980s: Building a network
The 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, MetromediaMetromedia
Metromedia was a media company that owned radio and television stations in the United States from 1956 to 1986 and owned Orion Pictures from 1986-1997.- Overview :...
. These stations were WNEW-TV in New York City, WTTG
WTTG
WTTG, channel 5, is an owned-and-operated television station of the Fox Broadcasting Company, located in the American capital city of Washington, D.C...
in Washington, D.C., KTTV
KTTV
KTTV, channel 11, is an owned-and-operated television station of the News Corporation-owned Fox Broadcasting Company, located in Los Angeles, California. Serving the vast Los Angeles metropolitan area, KTTV is a sister station to KCOP , Los Angeles' MyNetworkTV station...
in Los Angeles, KRIV-TV
KRIV
KRIV, channel 26, is an owned-and-operated television station of the News Corporation-owned Fox, located in Houston, Texas. KRIV is co-owned with MyNetworkTV affiliate KTXH...
in Houston, WFLD
WFLD
WFLD, virtual channel 32 , is the Fox owned-and-operated television station, based in Chicago, Illinois; through its parent company News Corporation, the station is owned in a duopoly with area MyNetworkTV affiliate WPWR-TV...
in Chicago, and KRLD in Dallas. A seventh station, WCVB-TV
WCVB-TV
WCVB-TV, channel 5, is a television station located in Boston, Massachusetts, owned by Hearst Television and affiliated with the ABC Television Network. WCVB-TV's studios and transmitter are co-located in Needham, Massachusetts. WCVB is also one of six Boston television stations seen in Canada by...
in Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, was part of the original transaction but was spun off in a separate, concurrent deal to the Hearst Corporation
Hearst Corporation
The Hearst Corporation is an American media conglomerate based in the Hearst Tower, Manhattan in New York City, New York, United States. Founded by William Randolph Hearst as an owner of newspapers, the company's holdings now include a wide variety of media...
as part of a right of first refusal
Right of first refusal
Right of first refusal is a contractual right that gives its holder the option to enter a business transaction with the owner of something, according to specified terms, before the owner is entitled to enter into that transaction with a third party...
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
Fourth television network
In American television terminology, a fourth network is a reference to a fourth broadcast television network, as opposed to the Big Three television networks that dominated US TV from the 1950s to the 1990s: ABC, CBS, and NBC....
which would compete with the three major U.S. television networks (ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
, CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
, and NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
). 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
Marvin Davis
Marvin H. Davis was an American industrialist and philanthropist...
. The purchase of the Metromedia stations was approved by the Federal Communications Commission
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
in March 1986; the New York and Dallas outlets were subsequently renamed WNYW
WNYW
WNYW, virtual channel 5 , is the flagship television station of the News Corporation-owned Fox Broadcasting Company, located in New York City. The station's transmitter is atop the Empire State Building and its studio facilities are located in the Yorkville section of Manhattan...
and KDAF
KDAF
KDAF, virtual channel 33 , is a CW-affiliated television station serving the Dallas-Fort Worth television market area. The station is licensed to Dallas and owned by the Tribune Company with its studios located off the John W. Carpenter Freeway in northwest Dallas. The station's transmitter is...
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
The Late Show (1986 TV series)
The Late Show is an American late-night talk show and the first series broadcast on the then-new Fox Network. Originally hosted by comic actress Joan Rivers, it first aired on October 9, 1986 under the title The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers...
, which debuted on October 9, 1986 with Joan Rivers
Joan Rivers
Joan Rivers is an American comedian, television personality and actress. She is known for her brash manner; her loud, raspy voice with a heavy New York accent; and her numerous cosmetic surgeries...
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. After that point, some stations which affiliated with the network in the weeks before the April 1987 primetime launch, such as Milwaukee's WCGV-TV
WCGV-TV
WCGV-TV, digital channel 25 , is a television station located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, affiliated with MyNetworkTV Its signal covers most of southeastern Wisconsin, including the cities of Racine, Kenosha, Sheboygan and Waukesha...
, signed affiliation agreements on the condition that they would not have to carry The Late Show due to the program's ratings weakness.
The network debuted in prime time on April 5, 1987, with the series Married... with Children
Married... with Children
Married... with Children is an American surrealistic sitcom that aired for 11 seasons that featured a dysfunctional family living in Chicago, Illinois. The show, notable for being the first prime time television series to air on Fox, ran from April 5, 1987, to June 9, 1997. The series was created...
and The Tracey Ullman Show
The Tracey Ullman Show
The Tracey Ullman Show was an American television variety show, hosted by British comedian and onetime pop singer Tracey Ullman. It debuted on April 5, 1987 as the Fox network's second primetime series after Married... with Children, and ran until May 26, 1990. The show blended sketch comedy shorts...
. It added one new show per week over the next several weeks, with the series 21 Jump Street
21 Jump Street
21 Jump Street is an American police procedural crime drama television series that aired on the Fox Network from April 12, 1987, to April 27, 1991, with a total of 103 episodes. The series focused on a squad of youthful-looking undercover police officers investigating crimes in high schools,...
, Mr. President
Mr. President (TV series)
Mr. President was a United States television series starring George C. Scott that premiered on May 3, 1987. It was part of the Fox Broadcasting Company's premiere season of prime time entertainment, alongside Married... With Children, The Tracey Ullman Show, and Duet.-Cast:*George C. Scott ... ...
and Duet
Duet (TV series)
Duet is an American sitcom that aired on Fox from April 19, 1987 to August 20, 1989...
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
Werewolf (TV series)
Werewolf is an American horror series, and one of the original shows in the Fox network's broadcast line-up during its inaugural season of 1987–1988.The show follows the adventures of Eric Cord Werewolf is an American horror series, and one of the original shows in the Fox network's broadcast...
, and over the next three weeks the series The New Adventures of Beans Baxter
The New Adventures of Beans Baxter
The New Adventures of Beans Baxter is an adventure/comedy television series that aired between 1987 and 1988 on the Fox television network. It was created by Savage Steve Holland who also wrote and directed most of the seventeen episodes...
, Karen's Song
Karen's Song
Karen's Song is an American situation comedy television series starring Patty Duke. The series premiered July 18, 1987 on Fox.-Plot:Forty-year-old divorcee Karen Matthews cautiously begins dating 28-year-old Steven Foreman...
and Down and Out in Beverly Hills
Down and Out in Beverly Hills
Down and Out in Beverly Hills is a 1986 American comedy film based on the French play Boudu sauvé des eaux, which had previously been adapted on film in 1932 by Jean Renoir. Down and Out in Beverly Hills was directed by Paul Mazursky, and starred Nick Nolte, Bette Midler and Richard Dreyfuss...
were added. Both Karen's Song and Down and Out in Beverly Hills were canceled by the start of the 1987–88 television season, the network's first fall launch, and were replaced by Second Chance
Second Chance (TV series)
Second Chance was a short-lived American television sitcom, which aired on Fox from September 26 to November 28, 1987. The series was then revamped under the new title Boys Will Be Boys, and ran in the new format from January to May 14, 1988. It was created by David W...
and Women in Prison
Women in Prison (TV series)
Women in Prison is an American television sitcom, which aired on Fox from October 11, 1987 to April 2, 1988.-Synopsis:Set in cell-block J of the Bass Women's prison in Wisconsin, the show focuses on the interactions among the prison inmates...
.
The network had already decided to cancel The Late Show, and had a replacement series called The Wilton North Report
The Wilton North Report
The Wilton North Report was Fox's second attempt at a regular late-night show, replacing The Late Show. The series premiered on December 11, 1987 and ended four weeks later, on January 8, 1988....
in development, when the show began a ratings resurgence with its final guest host, comedian Arsenio Hall
Arsenio Hall
Arsenio Hall is an American actor, comedian, and former talk show host. He is best known for his talk show The Arsenio Hall Show, which ran between 1989 and 1994, and his roles in the films Coming to America and Harlem Nights.Hall is also known for his appearance as Alan Thicke's sidekick on the...
. Wilton North lasted 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
Ross Shafer
Ross Shafer is a comedian and television host turned motivational and customer service speaker/trainer, based in Carlsbad, California. Although he now splits time in Nashville, Tennessee, where his wife Leah has an aspiring singing career.-Biography:Shafer graduated from Federal Way High School in...
as its permanent host, and was permanently canceled by October 1988, while Hall signed a deal with Paramount Television
Paramount Television
Paramount Television was an American television production/distribution company that was active from January 1, 1968 to August 27, 2006.Its successor is CBS Television Studios, formerly CBS Paramount Television...
to develop his own syndicated late night talk show, The Arsenio Hall Show
The Arsenio Hall Show
The Arsenio Hall Show is an American variety/talk show that aired late weeknights in syndication from January 3, 1989 to May 27, 1994. The show was created and hosted by comedian/actor Arsenio Hall.- Background :...
.
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
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
; 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 pm Mondays to Saturdays and 7 to 11 pm Sundays, Fox has traditionally avoided programming the 10 pm hour, leaving that hour to affiliates to program locally. The network did schedule programming in the 10 pm hour on Sunday nights between 1989 and 1992, but never added 10 pm programming on any other night.
Except for KDAF (which was sold to Renaissance Broadcasting
Renaissance Broadcasting
Renaissance Broadcasting, founded in 1982 by Michael Finkelstien, was a company that owned several UHF television stations, it was sold to Tribune Broadcasting in 1997...
in 1995 and became a WB
The WB Television Network
The WB Television Network is a former television network in the United States that was launched on January 11, 1995 as a joint venture between Warner Bros. and Tribune Broadcasting. On January 24, 2006, CBS Corporation and Warner Bros...
affiliate at the same time), all the original stations are still part of the Fox network today. Clarke Ingram
Clarke Ingram
Clarke Ingram is a United States radio personality and programming executive.Ingram is best known in his home market and hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Most recently, he was employed at Pittsburgh-area stations WKHB and WKFB , which program a mixture of talk shows and oldies...
, who maintains a memorial website to the failed DuMont Television Network
DuMont Television Network
The DuMont Television Network, also known as the DuMont Network, DuMont, Du Mont, or Dumont was one of the world's pioneer commercial television networks, rivalling NBC for the distinction of being first overall. It began operation in the United States in 1946. It was owned by DuMont...
, has suggested that Fox is a revival or at least a linear descendant of DuMont, since Metromedia was spun off from DuMont and Metromedia's 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 station
Owned-and-operated station
In the broadcasting industry , an owned-and-operated station usually refers to a television station or radio station that is owned by the network with which it is associated...
s of the DuMont network.
Fox is a full member of the North American Broadcasters Association
North American Broadcasters Association
The North American Broadcasters Association is a non-profit group of broadcasting organizations in the United States, Canada and Mexico...
and the National Association of Broadcasters
National Association of Broadcasters
The National Association of Broadcasters is a trade association, workers union, and lobby group representing the interests of for-profit, over-the-air radio and television broadcasters in the United States...
.
1990s: Rise into mainstream success
Fox survived where DuMont and other attempts to start a fourth network failed because it programmed just under the number of hours to be legally considered a network by the FCCFederal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
. This allowed Fox to make money in ways forbidden to the established networks, since during its first years it was considered to be merely a large group of stations. By comparison, DuMont was hampered by numerous regulatory roadblocks, most notably a ban on acquiring more stations since its minority owner, Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
owned two television stations. Combined with DuMont's three television stations, this put DuMont at the legal limit at the time. Also, Murdoch was more than willing to open his wallet to get and keep programming and talent. DuMont, in contrast, operated on a shoestring budget and was unable to keep the programs and stars it had. Most of the other startup networks (such as The WB
The WB Television Network
The WB Television Network is a former television network in the United States that was launched on January 11, 1995 as a joint venture between Warner Bros. and Tribune Broadcasting. On January 24, 2006, CBS Corporation and Warner Bros...
, UPN
UPN
United Paramount Network was a television network that was broadcast in over 200 markets in the United States from 1995 to 2006. UPN was originally owned by Viacom/Paramount and Chris-Craft Industries, the former of which, through the Paramount Television Group, produced most of the network's...
and The CW
The CW Television Network
The CW Television Network is a television network in the United States launched at the beginning of the 2006–2007 television season. It is a joint venture between CBS Corporation, the former owners of United Paramount Network , and Time Warner's Warner Bros., former majority owner of The WB...
) followed this model as well.
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
Big Three Television Networks
The Big Three Television Networks are the three traditional commercial broadcast television networks in the United States: ABC, CBS and NBC...
broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC). Until the early 1990s, most Fox stations were still essentially independents. The network did not have significant market share until the mid-1990s, when News Corp. bought more station groups. The first was New World Communications
New World Communications
New World Pictures was an independent motion picture and television production company, and later television station owner in the United States from the late 1980s to the mid-1990s...
, which had signed an affiliation deal
Fox affiliate switches of 1994
The United States television network affiliate switches of 1994 were a series of events resulting from a multi-million dollar deal between Fox Broadcasting Company, known commonly as Fox, and New World Communications, an owner of several VHF television stations affiliated with major networks,...
with Fox in 1994. Later, in 2001, Fox bought several stations owned by Chris-Craft Industries
Chris-Craft Industries
Chris-Craft Industries, Inc., formerly National Automotive Fibers, Inc., was a publicly-held American corporation traded on the New York and Pacific Stock Exchanges. It later took on the name of one of its acquisitions, Chris-Craft Boats...
and its subsidiaries BHC Communications and United Television (most of these were UPN affiliates, although one
KMSP-TV
KMSP-TV, channel 9, is the Fox-owned-and-operated television station serving the Minneapolis-Saint Paul, Minnesota designated market area, owned in a duopoly with MyNetworkTV affiliate WFTC...
later became a Fox O&O). This made Fox one of the largest owners of television stations in the United States.
This all changed when Fox lured the National Football League
National Football League
The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
away from CBS
NFL on CBS
The NFL on CBS is the brand name of the CBS television network's coverage of the National Football League's American Football Conference games, produced by CBS Sports.-Market coverage and television policies:...
in 1993. They signed a huge contract to broadcast the NFC
National Football Conference
The National Football Conference is one of the two conferences of the National Football League . This conference and its counterpart, the American Football Conference , currently contain 16 teams each, making up the 32 teams of the NFL.-Current teams:Since 2002, the NFC has comprised 16 teams,...
, which included luring Pat Summerall
Pat Summerall
George Allen "Pat" Summerall is a former American football player and television sportscaster, having worked at CBS, Fox, and ESPN.Summerall is best known for his work with John Madden on NFL telecasts for CBS and Fox.-High school:...
, John Madden
John Madden (American football)
John Earl Madden is a former American professional football player in the National Football League, a former Super Bowl-winning head coach with the Oakland Raiders in the American Football League and later the NFL, and a former color commentator for NFL telecasts. In 2006, he was inducted into...
, Dick Stockton
Dick Stockton
Dick Stockton is an American sportscaster. He is currently employed by Fox Sports and Turner Sports as a football, baseball, and basketball play-by-play announcer.-Early life and career:...
, Matt Millen
Matt Millen
Matthew George "Matt" Millen is an American former National Football League linebacker and a former executive. Millen played for the Oakland Raiders, the San Francisco 49ers and the Washington Redskins. In Millen's 12-year NFL playing career, he played on four Super Bowl-winning teams...
, James Brown, and Terry Bradshaw
Terry Bradshaw
Terry Paxton Bradshaw is a former American football quarterback with the Pittsburgh Steelers in the National Football League . He played 14 seasons. He is a football analyst and co-host of Fox NFL Sunday...
(as well as many behind-the-scenes production personnel) from CBS Sports as well. The NFC deal, in fact, was the impetus for the affiliation deal with New World; many of New World's stations were longstanding CBS affiliates. After acquiring the NFL rights, Fox was 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
Beverly Hills, 90210
Beverly Hills, 90210 is an American drama series that originally aired from October 4, 1990 to May 17, 2000 on Fox and was produced by Spelling Television in the United States, and subsequently on various networks around the world. It is the first series in the Beverly Hills, 90210 franchise...
; Melrose Place; New York Undercover
New York Undercover
New York Undercover is an American police drama that aired on the FOX television network from 1994 to 1998. The series starred Malik Yoba as Detective J.C. Williams and Michael DeLorenzo as Detective Eddie Torres, two undercover detectives in New York City's 4th Precinct who were assigned to...
; and Party of Five
Party of Five
Party of Five is an American teen drama television series that aired on Fox for six seasons, from September 12, 1994, until May 3, 2000.Critically acclaimed, the show suffered from low ratings and after its first season was slated for cancellation...
. September 1993 saw the heavy promotion and debut of a short-lived Western with science-fiction elements, The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.
The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.
The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr., often referred to as just Brisco or Brisco County,The series is referred to as just Brisco or by Brisco County by the creator and executive producer Carlton Cuse, actors involved with the show, and by many critics. Some examples include:* Cuse, Carlton, DVD extra...
However, it was the Friday night show that debuted immediately following it, The X-Files
The X-Files
The X-Files is an American science fiction television series and a part of The X-Files franchise, created by screenwriter Chris Carter. The program originally aired from to . The show was a hit for the Fox network, and its characters and slogans became popular culture touchstones in the 1990s...
, which would find long-lasting success, and would be Fox's first series to crack Nielsen's year-end Top 20.
The sketch-comedy series In Living Color
In Living Color
In Living Color is an American sketch comedy television series, which originally ran on the Fox Network from April 15, 1990 to May 19, 1994. Brothers Keenen and Damon Wayans created, wrote, and starred in the program. The show was produced by Ivory Way Productions in association with 20th Century...
created many memorable characters (and launched the careers of future movie stars Jim Carrey
Jim Carrey
James Eugene "Jim" Carrey is a Canadian-American actor and comedian. He has received two Golden Globe Awards and has also been nominated on four occasions. Carrey began comedy in 1979, performing at Yuk Yuk's in Toronto, Ontario...
, Jamie Foxx
Jamie Foxx
Eric Marlon Bishop , professionally known as Jamie Foxx, is an American actor, singer-songwriter, stand-up comedian, and talk radio host. As an actor, his work in the film Ray earned him the Academy Award and BAFTA Award for Best Actor as well as the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a...
, Damon Wayans
Damon Wayans
Damon Kyle Wayans is an American stand-up comedian, writer and actor, one of the Wayans brothers.-Early life:Wayans was born in New York City, New York, the son of Elvira, a homemaker and social worker, and Howell Wayans, a supermarket manager...
, Keenen Ivory Wayans
Keenen Ivory Wayans
Keenen Ivory Wayans is an American actor, comedian, director and writer known as the host and creator of the FOX sketch comedy series In Living Color, which also starred Jim Carrey, Jamie Foxx, brothers Damon Wayans, Shawn Wayans and Marlon Wayans, sister Kim Wayans, David Alan Grier, Tommy...
, and "Fly Girl" dancer Jennifer Lopez
Jennifer Lopez
Jennifer Lynn Lopez is an American actress, singer, record producer, dancer, television personality, and fashion designer. Lopez began her career as a dancer on the television comedy program In Living Color. Subsequently venturing into acting, she gained recognition in the 1995 action-thriller...
).
MADtv
MADtv
MADtv is an American sketch comedy television series. It licensed the name and logo of Mad, but otherwise had no connection with the humor magazine outside the animated Spy vs. Spy and Don Martin cartoon shorts and images of Alfred E. Neuman that the show featured during the late 1990s. Its first...
, another sketch-comedy series that debuted in 1995, became a solid competitor to NBC's Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
for over a decade and the most successful show on Saturday nights. Madtv ended in 2009.
Fox would expand to a full week's worth of programming in 1993, which included scheduling the breakout hit The Simpsons opposite NBC's The Cosby Show
The Cosby Show
The Cosby Show is an American television situation comedy starring Bill Cosby, which aired for eight seasons on NBC from September 20, 1984 until April 30, 1992...
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 performed well in its new Thursday night slot, spending four seasons there and helping to launch Martin
Martin (TV series)
Martin is an American sitcom produced by HBO Independent Productions that aired for five seasons, from August 27, 1992 to May 1, 1997 on Fox...
, 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. Cops and AMW had for many years remained the anchors of the network's Saturday schedule, making it the most stable night in American broadcast television for over 14 years. America's Most Wanted ended it's 23 year run on Fox in June of 2011
Notable shows that debuted in the late 1990s include the quirky dramedy
Comedy-drama
Comedy-drama is a genre of theatre, film and television programs which combines humorous and serious content.-Theatre:Traditional western theatre, beginning with the ancient Greeks, was divided into comedy and tragedy...
Ally McBeal
Ally McBeal
Ally McBeal is an American legal comedy-drama series which aired on the Fox network from 1997 to 2002. The series was created by David E. Kelley, who also served as the executive producer, along with Bill D'Elia...
and traditional sitcom That '70s Show
That '70s Show
That '70s Show is an American television period sitcom that centers on the lives of a group of teenage friends living in the fictional suburban town of Point Place, Wisconsin, from May 17, 1976, to December 31, 1979...
, Fox's second-longest-running live-action sitcom behind Married... with Children. By the 1997–98 season, Fox had 3 shows in the Nielsen Top 20, The X-Files
The X-Files
The X-Files is an American science fiction television series and a part of The X-Files franchise, created by screenwriter Chris Carter. The program originally aired from to . The show was a hit for the Fox network, and its characters and slogans became popular culture touchstones in the 1990s...
which ranked 11th, King of the Hill
King of the Hill
King of the Hill is an American animated dramedy series created by Mike Judge and Greg Daniels, that ran from January 12, 1997, to May 6, 2010, on Fox network. It centers on the Hills, a working-class Methodist family in the fictional small town of Arlen, Texas...
which ranked 15th, and The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
which ranked 17th.
Building around its flagship The Simpsons, Fox has been relatively successful with animated shows. King of the Hill
King of the Hill
King of the Hill is an American animated dramedy series created by Mike Judge and Greg Daniels, that ran from January 12, 1997, to May 6, 2010, on Fox network. It centers on the Hills, a working-class Methodist family in the fictional small town of Arlen, Texas...
began in 1997; Family Guy
Family Guy
Family Guy is an American animated television series created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series centers on the Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter and Lois; their children Meg, Chris, and Stewie; and their anthropomorphic pet dog Brian...
and Futurama
Futurama
Futurama is an American animated science fiction sitcom created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening and David X. Cohen for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series follows the adventures of a late 20th-century New York City pizza delivery boy, Philip J...
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
Adult Swim
Adult Swim is an adult-oriented Cable network that shares channel space with Cartoon Network from 9:00 pm until 6:00 am ET/PT in the United States, and broadcasts in countries such as Australia and New Zealand...
of Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network (United States)
Cartoon Network is an American cable television network owned by Turner Broadcasting which primarily airs animated programming. The channel was launched on October 1, 1992 after Turner purchased the animation studio Hanna-Barbera Productions in 1991...
. Futurama would be revived with four direct-to-DVD films between 2007–2009 and would return as a series in 2010 on Comedy Central
Comedy Central
Comedy Central is an American cable television and satellite television channel that carries comedy programming, both original and syndicated....
. Less successful efforts included The Critic
The Critic
The Critic is an American prime time animated series revolving around the life of film critic Jay Sherman, voiced by actor Jon Lovitz. It was created by Al Jean and Mike Reiss, both of whom had worked as writers on The Simpsons. The Critic had 23 episodes produced, first broadcast on ABC in 1994,...
, which starred Jon Lovitz
Jon Lovitz
Jonathan "Jon" Lovitz is an American comedian, actor, and singer. He is best known as a cast member of the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live from 1985 to 1990.-Early life:...
from Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
(originally airing on ABC then moved to Fox before being canceled), and The PJs
The PJs
The PJs is an American stop-motion animated television series created by Eddie Murphy, Larry Wilmore, and Steve Tompkins. It portrayed life in an urban public housing project, modeled after the Brewster-Douglass housing projects in Detroit that once housed Diana Ross & Lilly Tomlin...
, (which was later broadcast on The WB
The WB Television Network
The WB Television Network is a former television network in the United States that was launched on January 11, 1995 as a joint venture between Warner Bros. and Tribune Broadcasting. On January 24, 2006, CBS Corporation and Warner Bros...
).
Throughout the 1990s, Fox launched its set of cable channels – FX, Fox News Channel
Fox News Channel
Fox News Channel , often called Fox News, is a cable and satellite television news channel owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a subsidiary of News Corporation...
, FXM (currently Fox Movie Channel
Fox Movie Channel
The Fox Movie Channel is a channel which shows movies uncut and commercial-free.-Overview:Movie content consists mainly of selections from 20th Century Fox's library of releases through the 1990s and movies produced exclusively for television. Widescreen versions are shown whenever available....
), a controlling interest in the Fox Sports Net
Fox Sports Net
The Fox Sports Regional Networks, or simply Fox Sports Net , are a collection of cable TV regional sports networks in the United States owned and operated by News Corporation.- Beginnings :...
regional sports networks, Speed Channel, Fox Sports World (currently Fox Soccer Channel
Fox Soccer Channel
Fox Soccer is an American television specialty channel, owned by News Corporation's Fox Entertainment Group, that specializes in soccer. It formerly broadcast rugby and Australian rules football, but is now dedicated strictly to soccer...
), and Fox Sports en Espanol (currently Fox Deportes).
2000s
Many Fox staple shows of the 1990s had ended. During this time, Fox put much of its efforts into producing reality fare such as Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire?Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire?
Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire? is a Fox network reality show in which multi-millionaire Rick Rockwell asked Darva Conger to marry him...
, Temptation Island, Married by America
Married by America
Married by America was a reality television program hosted by Los Angeles DJ Sean Valentine that aired in the United States on Fox in the spring of 2003. It was produced by the production company Rocket Science Laboratories .-Premise:Five single people agreed to be paired up sight unseen with...
and Joe Millionaire
Joe Millionaire
Joe Millionaire is an American reality television show that was broadcast on Fox beginning in January 2003. It was broadcast in the UK that same year...
, as well as video clips shows such as World's Wildest Police Videos
World's Wildest Police Videos
World's Wildest Police Videos is a reality TV series that dealt with police videos from across the world. Video footage of car chases, subsequent arrests, robberies, riots and other crimes appeared on the show...
and When Animals Attack!
When Animals Attack!
When Animals Attack! is a series of television specials aired by FOX in the United States during the mid- to late-1990s. The specials compiled graphic clips of various animals attacking humans....
After shedding most of these shows, Fox filled its lineup with acclaimed dramas such as 24
24 (TV series)
24 is an American television series produced for the Fox Network and syndicated worldwide, starring Kiefer Sutherland as Counter Terrorist Unit agent Jack Bauer. Each 24-episode season covers 24 hours in the life of Bauer, using the real time method of narration...
, The O.C.
The O.C.
The O.C. is an American teen drama television series that originally aired on the Fox television network in the United States from August 5, 2003, to February 21, 2007, running a total of four seasons...
, House
House (TV series)
House is an American television medical drama that debuted on the Fox network on November 16, 2004. The show's central character is Dr. Gregory House , an unconventional and misanthropic medical genius who heads a team of diagnosticians at the fictional Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in...
and Bones
Bones (TV series)
Bones is an American crime drama television series that premiered on the Fox Network on September 13, 2005. The show is based on forensic anthropology and forensic archaeology, with each episode focusing on an FBI case file concerning the mystery behind human remains brought by FBI Special Agent...
, and comedies such as The Bernie Mac Show
The Bernie Mac Show
The Bernie Mac Show is an American sitcom featuring comic actor Bernie Mac and his wife Wanda raising his sister's three kids: Jordan, Bryana and Vanessa. The show aired for five seasons , concluding with a half-hour series finale on Fox....
, Malcolm in the Middle
Malcolm in the Middle
Malcolm in the Middle is an American television sitcom created by Linwood Boomer for the Fox Network. The series was first broadcast on January 9, 2000, and ended its six-and-a-half-year run on May 14, 2006, after seven seasons and 151 episodes...
, and Arrested Development. By 2005, Fox's most popular show by far was the talent search American Idol
American Idol
American Idol, titled American Idol: The Search for a Superstar for the first season, is a reality television singing competition created by Simon Fuller and produced by FremantleMedia North America and 19 Entertainment...
, 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
Super Bowl XXXIX
Super Bowl XXXIX was an American football game played on February 6, 2005, at Alltel Stadium in Jacksonville, Florida, to decide the National Football League champion following the 2004 regular season...
, 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
Demographics
Demographics are the most recent statistical characteristics of a population. These types of data are used widely in sociology , public policy, and marketing. Commonly examined demographics include gender, race, age, disabilities, mobility, home ownership, employment status, and even location...
most appealing to advertisers. Another milestone came on May 21, 2008, Fox took the No.1 general households rating crown for the first time, based on the strength of Super Bowl XLII
Super Bowl XLII
Super Bowl XLII was an American football game on February 3, 2008 that featured the National Football Conference champion New York Giants and the American Football Conference champion New England Patriots to decide the National Football League champion for the 2007 season...
and American Idol.
Near the end of the 2000s, Fox launched a few series that proved to be powerful hits in different respects. In 2008, Fringe
Fringe (TV series)
Fringe is an American science fiction television series created by J. J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci. The series follows a Federal Bureau of Investigation "Fringe Division" team based in Boston, Massachusetts under the supervision of Homeland Security...
debuted to high ratings and critical acclaim during its first season on Tuesdays; though its viewership declined through its run, the series has helped to reverse Fox's dwindling fortunes on Friday nights. In 2009, Fox launched Glee
Glee (TV series)
Glee is an American musical comedy-drama television series that airs on Fox in the United States, and on GlobalTV in Canada. It focuses on the high school glee club New Directions competing on the show choir competition circuit, while its members deal with relationships, sexuality and social issues...
to average ratings but positive reception from critics. Ratings picked up during the first season, and the show has been met with such media attention that it has formed a large loyal fanbase. The cast of the series has been acknowledged by notable people such as the President of the United States Barack Obama and Oprah Winfrey, who have each asked the cast to perform live for numerous national events. At the close of the decade, new comedies Raising Hope
Raising Hope
Raising Hope is a television comedy program first aired on September 21, 2010 on Fox. The series airs on Tuesdays at 9:30 pm. On January 10, 2011, Fox renewed Raising Hope for a second season, which premiered on September 20, 2011....
and New Girl gave Fox its first ratings successes in live-action comedy in years.
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
Owned-and-operated station
In the broadcasting industry , an owned-and-operated station usually refers to a television station or radio station that is owned by the network with which it is associated...
or affiliate
Network affiliate
In the broadcasting industry , a network affiliate is a local broadcaster which carries some or all of the television program or radio program line-up of a television or radio network, but is owned by a company other than the owner of the network...
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
Youngstown, Ohio
Youngstown is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Mahoning County; it also extends into Trumbull County. The municipality is situated on the Mahoning River, approximately southeast of Cleveland and northwest of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania...
(WYFX
WYFX-LP
WYFX-LD is the Fox-affiliated television station for the Mahoning Valley of Northeastern Ohio, licensed to Youngstown. It broadcasts a low-powered digital signal UHF channel 19 from a transmitter on Sunset Boulevard in Boardman Township. Owned by New Vision Television, the station is sister to CBS...
) and Santa Barbara, California
Santa Barbara, California
Santa Barbara is the county seat of Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Situated on an east-west trending section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coast of the United States, the city lies between the steeply-rising Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean...
(KKFX
KKFX-CA
KKFX-CA is the Class A television service Fox-affiliated television station for the Central Coast of California that is licensed to San Luis Obispo. It continues to broadcast an analog signal on UHF channel 24 from a transmitter near Serrano and U.S. 101 in the Los Padres National Forest even after...
), broadcasting in analog format. In some cases, including both of these markets, these stations also have digital signals on the digital subchannel
Digital subchannel
In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a means to transmit more than one independent program at the same time from the same digital radio or digital television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compression techniques to reduce the size of each individual...
of a sister television station in the same market.
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 pm to 12:30 am Weekend daytime programming consists of the infomercial block Weekend MarketplaceWeekend Marketplace
Weekend Marketplace is a two hour Saturday morning block of paid programming airing on Fox that began airing on January 3, 2009, replacing the 4Kids TV Saturday morning cartoon block that aired using time leased by 4Kids from Fox from 2002 until the last Saturday of 2008...
(Saturdays from 10:00 am to noon) and the hour-long political news program Fox News Sunday
Fox News Sunday
Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace is a public affairs program on the Fox network, hosted by Chris Wallace and airing on Sunday mornings. The show began on April 28, 1996, which predated the launch of Fox News Channel, and usually talks about items similar to Sunday morning talk shows...
(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).
Most of its primetime programming is produced by one of the production companies owned by News Corporation, usually 20th Century Fox Television
20th Century Fox Television
20th Century Fox Television is the television production division of 20th Century Fox Film Corporation, and a production arm of the Fox Broadcasting Company...
or Fox Television Studios
Fox Television Studios
Fox Television Studios, Inc. is the TV production arm of the News Corporation's Fox Entertainment Group, as well as being the production arm of Fox and a production arm of 20th Century Fox Television, Inc., itself a division of Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation...
.
Fox's weekday programming differs from the "big three" networks in several significant ways: There is no morning newscast, no daytime television, no evening newscast, no third hour of primetime, and no late-night talk shows. Local affiliates either produce their own programming during these times or run syndicated shows.
News
Unlike the Big ThreeBig Three Television Networks
The Big Three Television Networks are the three traditional commercial broadcast television networks in the United States: ABC, CBS and NBC...
, Fox does not currently air national morning or evening news programs, choosing to focus solely on their primetime schedule. However, the network's parent company owns the Fox News Channel
Fox News Channel
Fox News Channel , often called Fox News, is a cable and satellite television news channel owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a subsidiary of News Corporation...
, which was launched in 1996 and is now available through virtually all cable and satellite providers in the United States. Fox News does produce some news coverage carried by the broadcast network, usually separate from the coverage aired on the cable channel, as Fox Report
Fox Report
The Fox Report is a fast-paced American nightly news program on Fox News Channel, hosted weekdays by Shepard Smith and weekends by Harris Faulkner.-About the program:...
and Studio B anchor Shepard Smith
Shepard Smith
David Shepard Smith, Jr. , known better as Shepard Smith, is an American television news anchor. He is host of Fox Report with Shepard Smith and Studio B weekdays on Fox News Channel. In addition, he anchors the 5:00 p.m...
anchors most primetime news presentations on the Fox network, especially during political news events (which are anchored by Bret Baier
Bret Baier
Bret Baier is an American journalist and the host of Special Report with Bret Baier on Fox News Channel. He previously worked as the network's Chief White House Correspondent and Pentagon correspondent.-Career:...
on the Fox News Channel).
Specifically, the Fox network airs coverage of the State of the Union address
State of the Union Address
The State of the Union is an annual address presented by the President of the United States to the United States Congress. The address not only reports on the condition of the nation but also allows the president to outline his legislative agenda and his national priorities.The practice arises...
, presidential debates
United States presidential election debates
During presidential elections in the United States, it has become customary for the main candidates to engage in a debate...
, national election coverage, as well as live breaking news bulletins from time to time branded as "Fox News Alerts" or sometimes "Fox News Red 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
Political convention
In politics, a political convention is a meeting of a political party, typically to select party candidates.In the United States, a political convention usually refers to a presidential nominating convention, but it can also refer to state, county, or congressional district nominating conventions...
speeches, which usually occur during the 10:00 pm ET hour when many affiliates air local news. However the majority of Fox's O&O's and station groups do take weekday breaking news briefs.)
The public affairs show Fox News Sunday
Fox News Sunday
Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace is a public affairs program on the Fox network, hosted by Chris Wallace and airing on Sunday mornings. The show began on April 28, 1996, which predated the launch of Fox News Channel, and usually talks about items similar to Sunday morning talk shows...
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
The Reporters
The Reporters was a newsmagazine show aired by FOX Television in the 1988-89 and 1989-90 seasons.The Reporters was much in the style of the syndicated show A Current Affair, except that there was no regular "host" role...
, 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 1995. Another failed attempt occurred in 1993, when Fox launched the newsmagazine Front Page
Front Page (newsmagazine)
Front Page was a short-lived newsmagazine that ran in 1993 on the Fox television network in the United States. It featured five main hosts and reporters: Andria Hall, Tony Harris, Vicki Liviakis, Josh Mankiewicz, and Ron Reagan...
in an attempt to capture a younger demographic for such a program, with Ron Reagan
Ron Reagan
Ronald Prescott "Ron" Reagan sometimes known as Ronald Reagan, Jr., is a former talk radio host and chief political analyst for KIRO radio in Seattle until his show was canceled on August 8, 2007...
among its five hosts.
After FNC launched in 1996, the network tried again in 1998 with Fox Files, hosted by Fox News anchors Catherine Crier
Catherine Crier
Catherine Jean Crier is an American television personality and a former district court judge.-Life and career:Crier was born in Dallas, Texas in 1954 to William and Ann Crier and has two sisters. Crier graduated from Richardson High School and University of Texas at Austin, from which she earned...
and Jon Scott
Jon Scott
Jon Scott is an American television news anchor, co-hosting Happening Now from 11:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m. ET with Jenna Lee on Fox News Channel.-Personal life and education:...
, 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
Fox News Channel
Fox News Channel , often called Fox News, is a cable and satellite television news channel owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a subsidiary of News Corporation...
's Shepard Smith
Shepard Smith
David Shepard Smith, Jr. , known better as Shepard Smith, is an American television news anchor. He is host of Fox Report with Shepard Smith and Studio B weekdays on Fox News Channel. In addition, he anchors the 5:00 p.m...
.
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 am 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 am as opposed to the other major networks airing theirs from 7 to 9 am Fox tried its hand again in 2001, at a morning show called Good Day Live, inspired by KTTV
KTTV
KTTV, channel 11, is an owned-and-operated television station of the News Corporation-owned Fox Broadcasting Company, located in Los Angeles, California. Serving the vast Los Angeles metropolitan area, KTTV is a sister station to KCOP , Los Angeles' MyNetworkTV station...
'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
The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet
The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet is an American syndicated morning talk show. Produced by Fox, the show first aired on January 22, 2007 to a number of markets originally through Fox and MyNetworkTV, most in the Fox Television Stations Group...
for its O&O (owned and operated) stations, hosted by Mike Jerrick
Mike Jerrick
Michael Eugene Joseph Jerrick was the co-host with Juliet Huddy of the morning program The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet, which began in January 2007. The last "live" episode of the show aired on June 12, 2009...
and Juliet Huddy of the Fox News Channel's DaySide
DaySide
DaySide was an American news/talk show on the Fox News Channel, which aired weekdays at 1:00 p.m. ET. Unlike most news channel programs, it had an live audience giving reaction throughout the program, similar to the CNN show TalkBack Live....
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
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
, NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
, and CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
affiliates where a MyNetworkTV
MyNetworkTV
MyNetworkTV is a television broadcast syndication service in the United States, owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a division of News Corporation...
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 BroadcastingBritish Sky Broadcasting
British Sky Broadcasting Group plc is a satellite broadcasting, broadband and telephony services company headquartered in London, United Kingdom, with operations in the United Kingdom and the Ireland....
, 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
Monday Night Football
Monday Night Football is a live broadcast of the National Football League on ESPN. From to it aired on ABC. Monday Night Football was, along with Hallmark Hall of Fame, and the Walt Disney anthology television series, one of the longest running prime time commercial network television series...
, Fox made an offer to the NFL
National Football League
The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
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
National Football Conference
The National Football Conference is one of the two conferences of the National Football League . This conference and its counterpart, the American Football Conference , currently contain 16 teams each, making up the 32 teams of the NFL.-Current teams:Since 2002, the NFC has comprised 16 teams,...
. The NFL selected the Fox bid, stripping CBS of football
NFL on CBS
The NFL on CBS is the brand name of the CBS television network's coverage of the National Football League's American Football Conference games, produced by CBS Sports.-Market coverage and television policies:...
for the first time since 1955
1955 NFL season
The 1955 NFL season was the 36th regular season of the National Football League. NBC paid $100,000 to replace DuMont as the national television network for the NFL Championship Game...
. 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
National Hockey League
The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...
(1994–99), Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
(since 1996), and NASCAR
NASCAR
The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing is a family-owned and -operated business venture that sanctions and governs multiple auto racing sports events. It was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1947–48. As of 2009, the CEO for the company is Brian France, grandson of the late Bill France Sr...
auto racing (since 2001). From 2007 to 2010, Fox aired the Bowl Championship Series
Bowl Championship Series
The Bowl Championship Series is a selection system that creates five bowl match-ups involving ten of the top ranked teams in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision , including an opportunity for the top two to compete in the BCS National Championship Game.The BCS relies on a combination of...
college football games, except for the Rose Bowl
Rose Bowl Game
The Rose Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game, usually played on January 1 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. When New Year's Day falls on a Sunday, the game is played on Monday, January 2...
, which remained on ABC. The package also included the BCS Championship Game, except in 2010 when the game was played at the Rose Bowl.
In August 2011, Fox and mixed martial arts
Mixed martial arts
Mixed Martial Arts is a full contact combat sport that allows the use of both striking and grappling techniques, both standing and on the ground, including boxing, wrestling, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, muay Thai, kickboxing, karate, judo and other styles. The roots of modern mixed martial arts can be...
promotion Ultimate Fighting Championship
Ultimate Fighting Championship
The Ultimate Fighting Championship is the largest mixed martial arts promotion company in the world that hosts most of the top-ranked fighters in the sport...
(UFC) reached a multi-year deal. The agreement will include four live events in prime time or late night each year, the first time UFC has aired on broadcast television.
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 RangersPower Rangers
Power Rangers is a long-running American entertainment and merchandising franchise built around a live action children's television series featuring teams of costumed heroes...
(currently airing on Nickelodeon
Nickelodeon (TV channel)
Nickelodeon, often simply called Nick and originally named Pinwheel, is an American children's channel owned by MTV Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom International. The channel is primarily aimed at children ages 7–17, with the exception of their weekday morning program block aimed at preschoolers...
), Bobby's World
Bobby's World
Bobby's World is an American animated television series, which ran from 1990 to 1998, on FOX Kids. It was about the daily life of Bobby Generic and his very overactive imagination on how he sees the world. The show was created by Canadian actor-comedian Howie Mandel...
, X-Men
X-Men (TV series)
X-Men, also known as X-Men: The Animated Series, is an American animated television series which debuted on October 31, 1992, in the United States on the Fox Network as part of its Fox Kids Saturday morning lineup...
, The Tick, Eerie, Indiana
Eerie, Indiana
Eerie, Indiana is an American television series that aired on NBC from 1991 to 1992 and then on syndication on Fox from 1997 to 1998. The series was created by José Rivera and Karl Schaefer, with Joe Dante serving as creative consultant.-Premise:...
and Goosebumps
Goosebumps (TV series)
Goosebumps is a Canadian children's horror anthology television series based on R. L. Stine's Goosebumps books.-Networks:...
. When The WB added the Kids' WB
Kids' WB
Kids' WB! was Warner Bros. American childrens programing division brand for The WB Television Network. In September 2006, the block moved to The CW Television Network. The CW is the result of The WB's merger with UPN in 2006...
programming block in 1995, Warner Bros. Animation
Warner Bros. Animation
Warner Bros. Animation is the animation division of Warner Bros., a subsidiary of Time Warner. The studio is closely associated with the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies characters, among others. The studio is the successor to Warner Bros...
-produced Tiny Toon Adventures
Tiny Toon Adventures
Steven Spielberg Presents Tiny Toon Adventures, usually referred to as Tiny Toon Adventures or simply Tiny Toons, is an American animated television series created by Tom Ruegger and produced by Amblin Entertainment and Warner Bros. Animation. It began production as a result of Warner Bros....
, Animaniacs
Animaniacs
Steven Spielberg Presents Animaniacs, usually referred to as simply Animaniacs, is an American animated series, distributed by Warner Bros. Television and produced by Amblin Entertainment and Warner Bros. Animation. The cartoon was the second animated series produced by the collaboration of Steven...
and later Batman: The Animated Series
Batman: The Animated Series
Batman: The Animated Series is an American animated series based on the DC Comics character Batman. The series featured an ensemble cast of many voice-actors including Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill, Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., Arleen Sorkin, and Loren Lester. The series won four Emmy Awards and was nominated...
, (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
ABC Family
ABC Family, stylized as abc family, is an American television network, owned by ABC Family Worldwide Inc., a subsidiary of the Disney-ABC Television Group division of The Walt Disney Company...
) to The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...
in 2002 and then sell the four hours of Saturday morning time to 4Kids Entertainment
4Kids Entertainment
4Kids Entertainment is an American film and television production company in bankruptcy since April 2011. It is known for English-dubbing Japanese anime and specializing in the acquisition, production and licensing of children's entertainment around the United States...
.
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
E/I
E/I, which stands for "educational and informative," refers to a type of children's television programming shown in the United States. The Federal Communications Commission requires that every full-service Terrestrial television station in the U.S. show at least three hours of these television...
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
Infomercial
Infomercials are direct response television commercials which generally include a phone number or website. There are long-form infomercials, which are typically between 15 and 30 minutes in length, and short-form infomercials, which are typically 30 seconds to 120 seconds in length. Infomercials...
block called Weekend Marketplace
Weekend Marketplace
Weekend Marketplace is a two hour Saturday morning block of paid programming airing on Fox that began airing on January 3, 2009, replacing the 4Kids TV Saturday morning cartoon block that aired using time leased by 4Kids from Fox from 2002 until the last Saturday of 2008...
. However, This Week in Baseball
This Week in Baseball
This Week in Baseball is a weekly television program, originally designed to show highlights of the previous week's Major League Baseball action. TWIB debuted in .-Genesis of the series:...
, an E/I show produced by Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
, 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 HDTVHigh-definition television
High-definition television is video that has resolution substantially higher than that of traditional television systems . HDTV has one or two million pixels per frame, roughly five times that of SD...
in 720p
720p
720p is the shorthand name for 1280x720, a category of High-definition television video modes having a resolution of 1080 or 720p and a progressive scan...
on September 12, 2004 with a series of NFL football games. The network had 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
DirecTV
DirecTV is an American direct broadcast satellite service provider and broadcaster based in El Segundo, California. Its satellite service, launched on June 17, 1994, transmits digital satellite television and audio to households in the United States, Latin America, and the Anglophone Caribbean. ...
acknowledgement (the SD feed did); 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. On some Fox shows, a hashtag rests above the affiliate's logo so viewers can talk about the show on Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
.
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
Safe area
Safe area is a term used in television production to describe the areas of the television picture that can be seen on television screens.Older televisions can display less of the space outside of the safe area than ones made more recently...
and forgoes the affiliate's logo, mainly for promotional consideration due to fair use
Fair use
Fair use is a limitation and exception to the exclusive right granted by copyright law to the author of a creative work. In United States copyright law, fair use is a doctrine that permits limited use of copyrighted material without acquiring permission from the rights holders...
of clips from each series by other media outlets (et al., news programming and clip programs such as those seen on E!
E!
E! Entertainment Television is an American basic cable and satellite television network, owned by NBCUniversal. It features entertainment-related programming, reality television, feature films and occasionally series and specials unrelated to the entertainment industry.E! has an audience reach of...
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 are currently unbranded.
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
This Week in Baseball
This Week in Baseball is a weekly television program, originally designed to show highlights of the previous week's Major League Baseball action. TWIB debuted in .-Genesis of the series:...
began being shown in widescreen in 2009, while Sunday political talk program Fox News Sunday converted to HD when Fox News Channel
Fox News Channel
Fox News Channel , often called Fox News, is a cable and satellite television news channel owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a subsidiary of News Corporation...
launched their new HD facilities in November 2008 (before the network's widescreen presentation effort went into effect in September 2010, it was the final Fox News program to be produced to fit the 4:3 safe area, as Fox News Channel itself converted to a full-time widescreen presentation on both their HD and standard definition channels in 2009). MADtv
MADtv
MADtv is an American sketch comedy television series. It licensed the name and logo of Mad, but otherwise had no connection with the humor magazine outside the animated Spy vs. Spy and Don Martin cartoon shorts and images of Alfred E. Neuman that the show featured during the late 1990s. Its first...
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 11 pm 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. The final network show to convert to HD was Family Guy
Family Guy
Family Guy is an American animated television series created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series centers on the Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter and Lois; their children Meg, Chris, and Stewie; and their anthropomorphic pet dog Brian...
as of their September 26, 2010 episode.
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.
Since late July 2010, when Fox began to broadcast their sports programming with graphics optimized for 16:9 displays rather than the 4:3 safe area, the network has asked cable and satellite providers to comply and use the No.10 Active Format Description
Active Format Description
In television technology, Active Format Description is a standard set of codes that can be sent in the MPEG video stream or in the baseband SDI video signal that carries information about their aspect ratio and active picture characteristics...
code they now send out over Fox programming, which has 16:9 content display in letterbox
Letterbox
Letterboxing is the practice of transferring film shot in a widescreen aspect ratio to standard-width video formats while preserving the film's original aspect ratio. The resulting videographic image has mattes above and below it; these mattes are part of the image...
ed mode on 4:3 screens and has graphical elements optimized for the 16:9 screen. Subsequently a number of Fox O&O's and affiliates also now send out the AFD No.10 flag over their HD local news and syndicated programming with graphical elements optimized for 16:9 to allow that programming to appear in widescreen format on 4:3 analog sets.
Station standardization
During the early 1990s, Fox began having stations branded as "Fox", then the channel number, with the call signs nearby. For instance, WNYWWNYW
WNYW, virtual channel 5 , is the flagship television station of the News Corporation-owned Fox Broadcasting Company, located in New York City. The station's transmitter is atop the Empire State Building and its studio facilities are located in the Yorkville section of Manhattan...
in New York City, WTTG
WTTG
WTTG, channel 5, is an owned-and-operated television station of the Fox Broadcasting Company, located in the American capital city of Washington, D.C...
in Washington, D.C., and WAGA
WAGA-TV
WAGA-TV, virtual channel 5.1 is an owned-and-operated television station of the News Corporation-owned Fox Television Network and based in Atlanta, Georgia, United States...
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
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
, which uses the CBS Mandate
CBS Television Stations
The CBS Television Stations are a group of television stations owned by CBS Corporation. As of 2009, CBS Corporation owns 28 stations, broken down as follows: 14 are the key stations of the CBS Television Network ; nine are aligned with the CW Television Network, which is co-owned by CBS with Time...
on most of its owned-and-operated station
Owned-and-operated station
In the broadcasting industry , an owned-and-operated station usually refers to a television station or radio station that is owned by the network with which it is associated...
s ("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. After News Corporation's acquisition of the social networking site Myspace
Myspace
Myspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....
(which it sold in June 2011), some Fox O&Os launched websites that look the same and have similar addresses, such as MyFoxDC.com.
Logos
Over the years, the Fox Broadcasting Company has used a few logos, most of which have the familiar trademark searchlightSearchlight
A searchlight is an apparatus that combines a bright light source with some form of curved reflector or other optics to project a powerful beam of light of approximately parallel rays in a particular direction, usually constructed so that it can be swiveled about.-Military use:The Royal Navy used...
s 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
Local TV
Local TV LLC is a limited liability corporation, owned by Oak Hill Capital Partners , which operates 18 local network-affiliated television stations in the United States.-History:...
, and several of Tribune Broadcasting
Tribune Broadcasting
The Tribune Broadcasting Company is a group of radio and television stations located throughout the United States which are owned and operated by the Tribune Company, a media conglomerate based in Chicago, Illinois and named for the flagship Chicago Tribune newspaper.- History :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, and three hours on Sundays, compared to the three weeknight and four Sunday night hours broadcast by the Big Three networks. This allows for many of its stations to air local news during the 10 pm (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, such as game shows or 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
Divorce Court
Divorce Court is a judge show about cases which only involve divorcing couples. Out of the shows currently airing in the court-themed genre, Divorce Court is the oldest...
and Judge Alex
Judge Alex
Judge Alex is a United States syndicated courtroom television show that debuted September 12, 2005. The host/arbitrator is the Hon. Alex Ferrer, a former police officer, lawyer, and Florida judge. The show was produced in Houston at the television studios of Fox's KRIV , as was previously done with...
. Fox also produced two syndicated game shows, Don't Forget the Lyrics!
Don't Forget the Lyrics!
Don't Forget the Lyrics! is a game show that originally aired on Fox from July 11, 2007 to June 19, 2009, hosted by Wayne Brady and produced by RDF USA, part of RDF Media. The launch of this show prompted NBC to move up the launch of their similar game show The Singing Bee...
and Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?
Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? (U.S. syndicated game show)
Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? is a daily syndicated version of the former primetime American quiz game show of the same name that aired on Fox. It ran from September 21, 2009 to March 24, 2011 and was produced by Mark Burnett, and, like the primetime version, was hosted by Jeff Foxworthy...
, both of which previously aired on Fox in prime time. Both were cancelled in 2011 due to low ratings.
Local news
At least half of Fox's 180 O&O and affiliated stations air local news in the 10–11 p.m. ET/PT (9–10 p.m. CT/MT) time slot. 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 pm and a late afternoon newscast extended by a half-hour competing with the national evening newscasts, while others only have a 10 pm newscast.Miami's WSVN
WSVN
WSVN, channel 7, is a television station located in Miami, Florida, USA. WSVN is owned by Sunbeam Television, and is an affiliate of the Fox Broadcasting Company. The station has its studio facilities located in North Bay Village and transmitter based in north Miami-Dade County.WSVN operates a Key...
has the most local news of any Fox station with roughly 54 hours per week, followed by Tampa's WTVT
WTVT
WTVT, channel 13, is a television station in Tampa, Florida. It is an owned and operated station of the Fox Broadcasting Company, a subsidiary of the News Corporation...
with roughly 52.5 hours per week. Only a few Fox stations that air an 11 pm (or 10 pm) newscast along with a 10 pm (or 9 pm) newscast. WTVT in Tampa, KDFW
KDFW
KDFW, virtual channel 4 , is the Fox owned-and-operated television station in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex designated market area....
in Dallas/Fort Worth, WAGA
WAGA-TV
WAGA-TV, virtual channel 5.1 is an owned-and-operated television station of the News Corporation-owned Fox Television Network and based in Atlanta, Georgia, United States...
in Atlanta, WOFL
WOFL
WOFL, channel 35, is the Fox owned-and-operated television station serving the Orlando, Florida metropolitan area. It is licensed to Orlando, with studios located in Lake Mary. It broadcasts its digital signal on UHF channel 22. On cable, WOFL-TV is currently seen on channel 3 for subscribers of...
in Orlando, WJBK
WJBK
WJBK is the Fox–owned and operated television station in Detroit, Michigan broadcasting on digital channel 7...
in Detroit, KMSP
KMSP-TV
KMSP-TV, channel 9, is the Fox-owned-and-operated television station serving the Minneapolis-Saint Paul, Minnesota designated market area, owned in a duopoly with MyNetworkTV affiliate WFTC...
in Minneapolis-St. Paul, KSAZ
KSAZ-TV
KSAZ-TV, virtual channel 10.1, is the Fox owned-and-operated station in Phoenix, Arizona. It is owned by Fox Television Stations in a duopoly with MyNetworkTV station KUTP ....
in Phoenix, WTTG
WTTG
WTTG, channel 5, is an owned-and-operated television station of the Fox Broadcasting Company, located in the American capital city of Washington, D.C...
Washington, D.C., and WFXT
WFXT
WFXT is a television station owned and operated by the News Corporation-owned Fox Broadcasting Company, located in Boston, Massachusetts. The station's studio and office facility is in Dedham, Massachusetts, and its transmitter is located in Needham, Massachusetts...
in Boston are the only Fox-owned stations to have a 11 pm/10 p.m. newscast in the Eastern Time Zone
Eastern Time Zone
The Eastern Time Zone of the United States and Canada is a time zone that falls mostly along the east coast of North America. Its UTC time offset is −5 hrs during standard time and −4 hrs during daylight saving time...
, Central and Mountain Time Zone
Mountain Time Zone
The Mountain Time Zone of North America keeps time by subtracting seven hours from Coordinated Universal Time, also known as Greenwich Mean Time, during the shortest days of autumn and winter , and by subtracting six hours during daylight saving time in the spring, summer, and early autumn...
s with only WFXT
WFXT
WFXT is a television station owned and operated by the News Corporation-owned Fox Broadcasting Company, located in Boston, Massachusetts. The station's studio and office facility is in Dedham, Massachusetts, and its transmitter is located in Needham, Massachusetts...
, WTTG
WTTG
WTTG, channel 5, is an owned-and-operated television station of the Fox Broadcasting Company, located in the American capital city of Washington, D.C...
, and KSAZ
KSAZ-TV
KSAZ-TV, virtual channel 10.1, is the Fox owned-and-operated station in Phoenix, Arizona. It is owned by Fox Television Stations in a duopoly with MyNetworkTV station KUTP ....
airing it every night. WDAF-TV
WDAF-TV
WDAF-TV, virtual channel 4.1, is the Fox-affiliated television station serving the Kansas City, Missouri-Kansas designated market area. The station is owned by Local TV LLC, the media arm of private equity firm Oak Hill Capital Partners. Its studios and transmitter are located in the Signal Hill...
in Kansas City, WITI in Milwaukee, WBRC
WBRC
WBRC, virtual channel 6, is the Fox-affiliated television station serving the Birmingham, Alabama designated market area. The station is owned by Raycom Media, and its transmitter is located atop Red Mountain in Birmingham...
in Birmingham, KOKH
KOKH-TV
KOKH-TV, virtual channel 25 , is the Fox-affiliated television station serving the Oklahoma City, Oklahoma television market...
in Oklahoma City, WTIC-TV
WTIC-TV
WTIC-TV, channel 61, is a television station in Hartford, Connecticut. Owned by the Tribune Company, WTIC-TV is a charter affiliate of the Fox Broadcasting Company...
in Hartford, WXXA in Albany, WZTV
WZTV
WZTV is the Fox-affiliated television station for Nashville, Tennessee. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 15 from a transmitter on Knob Road north of downtown along I-24...
in Nashville, WVUE
WVUE
WVUE-DT, broadcasting on virtual channel 8, is a TV station in New Orleans, Louisiana, affiliated with the Fox Broadcasting Company. WVUE is owned by Louisiana Media Company, with studios in the Gert Town section of New Orleans and transmitter in Chalmette, Louisiana.- Digital television :WVUE-DT...
in New Orleans, KTVI
KTVI
KTVI, virtual channel 2, is the Fox-affiliated television station serving the St. Louis, Missouri, designated market area. The station is owned by Local TV LLC, the media arm of private equity firm Oak Hill Capital Partners, under a local marketing agreement with Tribune-owned CW affiliate KPLR...
in St. Louis, KOKI-TV
KOKI-TV
KOKI-TV, virtual channel 23 , is the Fox-affiliated television station in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It is owned by Newport Television, a subsidiary of private equity firm Providence Equity Partners...
in Tulsa, KLRT in Little Rock, KPTV
KPTV
KPTV is the Fox-affiliated television station serving the Portland, Oregon market, which includes most of the state of Oregon and portions of Southwest Washington. KPTV is owned by the Meredith Corporation in a duopoly with MyNetworkTV affiliate KPDX , with its studios located in Beaverton and...
in Portland (has 50 hours of news per week), Oregon, and WSVN in Miami are among the non-O&Os airing a 10 pm (or 9 pm) and a 11 pm (or 10 pm) newscast.
Stations that don't air local news air syndicated programming, usually off-network sitcoms in that time slot. 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
WPGH-TV
WPGH-TV is the Fox-affiliated television station for Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 43 from a transmitter at its studios on Ivory Avenue in the city's Summer Hill section. The station can also be seen on Verizon FiOS and Comcast channel 7...
airs a 10 pm news from NBC affiliate WPXI
WPXI
WPXI, channel 11, is the NBC-affiliated television station for Western Pennsylvania that is licensed to Pittsburgh. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 48 from a transmitter located on the north side of Pittsburgh. Owned by Cox Enterprises, the station has studios in the...
after WPGH shut down its news division in 2006. In some smaller markets with duopolies
Duopoly (broadcasting)
In United States broadcast television and radio, duopoly is a term used to describe a single company which owns two or more stations in the same city or community....
, the Fox affiliate usually airs a 10 pm newscast from a sister station, such as Youngstown, Ohio
Youngstown, Ohio
Youngstown is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Mahoning County; it also extends into Trumbull County. The municipality is situated on the Mahoning River, approximately southeast of Cleveland and northwest of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania...
where CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
affiliate WKBN-TV
WKBN-TV
WKBN-TV is the CBS-affiliated television station for Youngstown, Ohio. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 41 from a transmitter at WKBN's studios on Sunset Boulevard in Boardman Township. Owned by New Vision Television, WKBN is sister to and shares studios with low-power...
airs a 10 pm newscast on its sister station, Fox affiliate WYFX
WYFX-LP
WYFX-LD is the Fox-affiliated television station for the Mahoning Valley of Northeastern Ohio, licensed to Youngstown. It broadcasts a low-powered digital signal UHF channel 19 from a transmitter on Sunset Boulevard in Boardman Township. Owned by New Vision Television, the station is sister to CBS...
. 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 pm newscast then gradually adding other newscasts. Between September 14 and September 21, 2009, six Fox affiliates owned by Tribune Company
Tribune Company
The Tribune Company is a large American multimedia corporation based in Chicago, Illinois. It is the nation's second-largest newspaper publisher, with ten daily newspapers and commuter tabloids including Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Hartford Courant, Orlando Sentinel, South Florida...
added an early evening and/or midday newscast; Fox has pushed its affiliates to carry more newscasts (especially ones in midday and early evening time slots) 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
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
, where WUTV
WUTV
WUTV, virtual channel 29, is the Fox-affiliated television station in Buffalo, New York. It broadcasts its digital signal on UHF channel 14. The station is owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group, in a duopoly with the area's MyNetworkTV affiliate WNYO-TV...
has long opted for sitcom reruns instead; that station is within range of the Toronto area and targets Southern Ontario
Southern Ontario
Southern Ontario is a region of the province of Ontario, Canada that lies south of the French River and Algonquin Park. Depending on the inclusion of the Parry Sound and Muskoka districts, its surface area would cover between 14 to 15% of the province. It is the southernmost region of...
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
Hamilton, Ontario
Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Conceived by George Hamilton when he purchased the Durand farm shortly after the War of 1812, Hamilton has become the centre of a densely populated and industrialized region at the west end of Lake Ontario known as the Golden Horseshoe...
and Toronto.
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 ChannelFox News Channel
Fox News Channel , often called Fox News, is a cable and satellite television news channel owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a subsidiary of News Corporation...
, and are regular subjects of controversy
Fox News Channel controversies
Critics of Fox News Channel have accused the network of having a bias favoring the political right and the Republican Party. Fox News has publicly denied such charges, stating that the reporters in the newsroom provide separate, neutral reporting....
. The network has also received some criticism for deciding not to carry scheduled news events such as presidential speeches at times in primetime in order to air regular entertainment programming (such as a speech in September 2009 which would have jeopardized the long-promoted fall premiere of Glee
Glee (TV series)
Glee is an American musical comedy-drama television series that airs on Fox in the United States, and on GlobalTV in Canada. It focuses on the high school glee club New Directions competing on the show choir competition circuit, while its members deal with relationships, sexuality and social issues...
had it aired).
Indecency
Controversy surrounded the network in 2002 and 2003 over obscenities, expressed respectively by CherCher
Cher is an American recording artist, television personality, actress, director, record producer and philanthropist. Referred to as the Goddess of Pop, she has won an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award, three Golden Globes and a Cannes Film Festival Award among others for her work in...
and Nicole Richie
Nicole Richie
Nicole Camille Richie is an American fashion designer, author, actress, singer and television personality. Her father was Peter Michael Escovedo, a musician who played for a brief time with Lionel Richie, and her mother Karen was the executive assistant for Sheila Escovedo...
, aired live on the network's broadcasts of the Billboard Music Award
Billboard Music Award
The Billboard Music Award is an honor given by Billboard magazine, the preeminent publication covering the music business. The Billboard Music Awards show had been held annually in December until it went dormant in 2007, but it returned in May 2011...
s on its affiliates in the Eastern
Eastern Time Zone
The Eastern Time Zone of the United States and Canada is a time zone that falls mostly along the east coast of North America. Its UTC time offset is −5 hrs during standard time and −4 hrs during daylight saving time...
and Central Time Zones despite the use of five-second audio delays
Broadcast delay
In radio and television, broadcast delay refers to the practice of intentionally delaying broadcast of live material. A short delay is often used to prevent profanity, bloopers, violence, or other undesirable material from making it to air, including more mundane problems such as technical...
; the indecent material was edited out on broadcasts in the Mountain Time Zone
Mountain Time Zone
The Mountain Time Zone of North America keeps time by subtracting seven hours from Coordinated Universal Time, also known as Greenwich Mean Time, during the shortest days of autumn and winter , and by subtracting six hours during daylight saving time in the spring, summer, and early autumn...
and westward. Both of the obscene instances were condemned by the Parents Television Council
Parents Television Council
The Parents Television Council is a U.S. based advocacy group founded by conservative activist L. Brent Bozell III in 1995 using the National Legion of Decency as a model...
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
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
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 Federal Communications Commission v. Fox Television Stations
Federal Communications Commission v. Fox Television Stations
FCC v. Fox Television Stations is a 2009 legal case in which the United States Supreme Court upheld regulations of the Federal Communications Commission that ban "fleeting expletives" on television broadcasts, finding they were not arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedure Act. It...
, the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals
United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit is one of the thirteen United States Courts 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
Parents Television Council
The Parents Television Council is a U.S. based advocacy group founded by conservative activist L. Brent Bozell III in 1995 using the National Legion of Decency as a model...
has criticized many popular Fox shows for perceived indecent content, such as American Dad!
American Dad!
American Dad! is an American animated television series created by Seth MacFarlane and owned by Underdog Productions and Fuzzy Door Productions. It is produced in association with 20th Century Fox Television...
, Arrested Development, The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
, Family Guy
Family Guy
Family Guy is an American animated television series created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series centers on the Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter and Lois; their children Meg, Chris, and Stewie; and their anthropomorphic pet dog Brian...
, Hell's Kitchen
Hell's Kitchen (U.S.)
Hell's Kitchen is an American reality-television cooking competition broadcast on Fox...
, Married... with Children
Married... with Children
Married... with Children is an American surrealistic sitcom that aired for 11 seasons that featured a dysfunctional family living in Chicago, Illinois. The show, notable for being the first prime time television series to air on Fox, ran from April 5, 1987, to June 9, 1997. The series was created...
, Prison Break
Prison Break
Prison Break is an American television serial drama created by Paul Scheuring, that was broadcast on the Fox Broadcasting Company for four seasons, from 2005 until 2009. The series revolves around two brothers; one has been sentenced to death for a crime he did not commit, and the other devises an...
, and That '70s Show
That '70s Show
That '70s Show is an American television period sitcom that centers on the lives of a group of teenage friends living in the fictional suburban town of Point Place, Wisconsin, from May 17, 1976, to December 31, 1979...
. The Council sometimes has gone even as far as to file complaints with the Federal Communications Commission
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
regarding indecent content within Fox programming, having done so for That '70s Show and Married by America
Married by America
Married by America was a reality television program hosted by Los Angeles DJ Sean Valentine that aired in the United States on Fox in the spring of 2003. It was produced by the production company Rocket Science Laboratories .-Premise:Five single people agreed to be paired up sight unseen with...
, having successfully been able to make the FCC fine the Fox network nearly $1 million for Married by America. That fine was reduced to $91,000 after it was discovered that the FCC originally claimed to have received 159 complaints, it later admitted to only receiving 90, which came from only 23 people. Blogger Jeff Jarvis studied the complaints and realized that all but 2 were virtually identical
Boilerplate (text)
Boilerplate is any text that is or can be reused in new contexts or applications without being changed much from the original. Many computer programmers often use the term boilerplate code. A legal boilerplate is a standard provision in a contract....
to each other, meaning that the $1.2 million judgment was based on original complaints written by a total of only three people. Armed with the new information, Fox promised to fight the fine.
The fine was ultimately reduced to $91,000 in January 2009.
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
- 20th Century Fox20th Century FoxTwentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
- 4Kids TV4Kids TV4Kids TV was a Saturday morning television programming block on the Fox Broadcasting Company. The block was part of the Fox Network schedule...
- Fox8FOX8Fox8 is an Australian cable and satellite channel available on Foxtel, Austar and Optus Television's subscription platforms...
- Fox cartoonsFox cartoonsFOX Cartoons refers to animated television series presented by the American TV network Fox Broadcasting Company. During the more than twenty-year existence of the Network, there have been many successful prime time animated series and Fox cartoons...
- Fox KidsFox KidsFox Kids was the Fox Broadcasting Company's American children's programming division and brand name from September 8, 1990 until September 7, 2002. It was owned by Fox Television Entertainment airing programming on Monday–Friday afternoons and Saturday mornings.Depending on the show, the...
- Fox Movie ChannelFox Movie ChannelThe Fox Movie Channel is a channel which shows movies uncut and commercial-free.-Overview:Movie content consists mainly of selections from 20th Century Fox's library of releases through the 1990s and movies produced exclusively for television. Widescreen versions are shown whenever available....
- Fox News ChannelFox News ChannelFox News Channel , often called Fox News, is a cable and satellite television news channel owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a subsidiary of News Corporation...
- Fox SportsFox Sports (USA)Fox Sports is a division of the Fox Broadcasting Company . It was formed in 1994 with Fox's acquisition of broadcast rights to National Football League games...
- Fox Sports NetFox Sports NetThe Fox Sports Regional Networks, or simply Fox Sports Net , are a collection of cable TV regional sports networks in the United States owned and operated by News Corporation.- Beginnings :...
- Fox Television Stations
- FoxtelFoxtelFoxtel is an Australian pay television company, operating cable, direct broadcast satellite television and IPTV services. It was formed in 1995 through a joint venture established between Telstra and News Corporation....
- Friday night death slotFriday night death slotThe Friday night death slot is a perceived graveyard slot in American television, referring to the concept that a television program in the United States scheduled on Friday evenings is destined for imminent cancellation....
- FX (TV channel)
- Fox Asia
- List of Fox affiliates, arranged by market
- List of Fox affiliates, arranged by state
- List of programs broadcast by Fox
- List of United States network television schedules
- List of United States over-the-air television networks