Fox Broadcasting Company

Fox Broadcasting Company

The current logo of the Fox Broadcasting Company.
Type	Broadcast television network
Country	United States
Availability	National; also distributed in Canada, Mexico and certain other North American countries.
Owner	News Corporation
Key people	Rupert Murdoch, President
Launch date	October 9, 1986
Former names	Briefly abbreviated "FBC"
Official website	www.fox.com

The Fox Broadcasting Company, usually referred to as just Fox (the company itself prefers the capitalized version FOX), is a television network in the United States. It is owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Fox has produced various shows since its launch on October 9, 1986. Fox is credited with launching the careers of such Hollywood stars as Jim Carrey (through the popular show In Living Color (1990–1994), which was also a discovery point for future Academy Award winner Jamie Foxx and The Wayans Brothers (Shawn Wayans, Marlon Wayans, Keenan Ivory Wayans, Damon Wayans & their sister Kim Wayans), Ben Stiller (through The Ben Stiller Show), Johnny Depp, through 21 Jump Street (1987–1990), and Ashton Kutcher (through That '70s Show (1998–2006).

The Fox name has been used on other entertainment channels internationally that are affiliated with News Corp., including in Italy, Spain, South America, and Australia (FOX8), although these do not necessarily air the same programming as the U.S. network.

History

Launch

The groundwork for the launch of the Fox network began in March 1985 with News Corporation's $250 million purchase of 50% of TCF Holdings, the parent company of the 20th Century Fox movie studio. Six months later, in September, Murdoch agreed to pay $325 million to acquire the rest of the studio. In May 1985, News Corp agreed to pay $1.55 billion to acquire independent television stations in six major U.S. media markets from John Kluge's company, Metromedia--KTTV in Los Angeles, WFLD in Chicago, KRLD in Dallas (which was renamed KDAF), KRIV in Houston, WNEW in New York (which was renamed WNYW) and WTTG in Washington, D.C. These first six stations, broadcasting to 22 percent of the nation's households, became known as the Fox Television Stations Group. Except for KDAF (which was sold to Tribune in 1995 and joined The WB after Fox affiliated with, then later bought VHF station KDFW), all of these stations are still part of Fox today. Since Metromedia grew out of the failed DuMont Television Network, some have suggested that Fox is a revival of DuMont.[1] Indeed, WNYW (then known as WABD) and WTTG were the key stations in the DuMont network.

In October 1985, Murdoch announced his intentions to form an independent television system which would compete with the three major U.S. television networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC). He planned to use the combination of the Fox studios and the former Metromedia stations both to produce programming and distribute it. Organizational plans for the network were held off until the Metromedia acquisitions cleared regulatory hurdles in March 1986. In January 1986, Murdoch said of his planned network, "We at Fox at the moment are deeply involved in working to put shape and form on original programs. These will be shows with no outer limits. The only rules that we will enforce on these programs is they must have taste, they must be engaging, they must be entertaining and they must be original."

On May 6, 1986, Murdoch along with newly-hired Fox CEO and chairman Barry Diller and comedian Joan Rivers announced plans for "FBC" or the "Fox Broadcasting Company", with WNYW in New York as the flagship station, to be launched with a daily late-night talk show program, The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers. When Fox was launched on October 9, 1986, it was broadcast to 96 stations reaching more than 80 percent of the nation's households. Fox had lined up 90 former independent stations as affiliates in addition to its original six seed stations. By contrast, ABC, CBS and NBC each had between 210 and 215 affiliates reaching more than 97 percent of the nation's households. Despite broadcasting only one show, the network was busy producing new programs with plans to gradually add prime time programming one night at a time.

1980s

From the beginning, Fox established itself as a somewhat edgy, irreverent, youth-oriented network compared to its rivals. Its first primetime shows, which debuted on Sunday nights beginning April 5, 1987, were a comedy about a dysfunctional family (Married... with Children) and a variety show (The Tracey Ullman Show). The former would become a strong hit, airing for 11 seasons, while the latter would spawn the longest-running sitcom and animated series in American television history, The Simpsons, which was spun off in 1989 and as of 2006 is still in production. Another early success was 21 Jump Street (1987–1991), an hour long police drama.

The next two years saw the introduction of America's Most Wanted (1988), profiling true crimes in hopes of capturing the criminals, and COPS (1989), a reality show documenting the day-to-day activities of police officers. The two shows are among the network's longest running and are credited with bringing reality television to the mainstream. In August 1988, America's Most Wanted was Fox's first show to break into the top 50 shows of the week according to the Nielsen ratings.

Fox debuted its Saturday night programming over four weeks beginning July 11, 1987, with several shows now long forgotten. Those shows were Mr. President, Women in Prison, The New Adventures of Beans Baxter and Second Chance. Fox would expand to seven nights a week of programming by 1993.

Differences Between Fox and DuMont

Fox survived where DuMont and other previous attempts to start a fourth network failed in part because it programmed just under the number of hours to be legally considered a network by the FCC. 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.

1990s

Despite a few successful shows, the network did not have a significant market share until the mid 1990s when News Corp. bought more TV station groups-the first was New World Communications, who had signed an affiliation deal with Fox in 1994 (see below). Later, in 2000, 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 converted to Fox). This made Fox one of the largest owners of television stations in the United States. Though 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).

The early and mid-1990s saw the launch of several soap-opera/dramas aimed at younger audiences that became quick hits: Beverly Hills 90210 (1990–2000), Melrose Place (1992–99), and Party of Five (1994–2000). September 1993 saw the heavy promotion and debut of a short-lived Western with science fiction elements, The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. (1993-94). However, it was the Friday night show that debuted immediately following it, The X-Files (1993–2002), which would find long-lasting success. Several comedies ran during this period as well, including In Living Color (1990–94), The Ben Stiller Show (1992–93), and MADtv (1995–). Though Ben Stiller's show would not be a ratings success, it was nonetheless a critical success that enhanced the network's reputation. Notable shows which debuted in the late 1990s include the quirky dramedy Ally McBeal (1997–2002) and the sitcom That '70s Show (1998–2006).

Building around its flagship The Simpsons (1989–)., Fox has been relatively successful with animated shows including Futurama (1999–2003) (as of 2006, Matt Groening is in negotiations with Fox to bring the show back, and has currently brought about a deal to create four direct-to-DVD movies), King of the Hill (1997–) (which was originally going to end after Season 10, but high ratings earned an 11th season), Family Guy (1999–) (though Family Guy has been cancelled twice by the network, it has been revived due to strong DVD sales and high ratings on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim), and American Dad (2005–).(which has gained strong ratings and critical acclaim, brought upon by the return of Family Guy). Less successful were The Critic (1994–95), which originally aired on ABC, and The PJ's (1999–2001), which was later aired on The WB. Fox also began airing its first game show, Greed hosted by established veteran game show host Chuck Woolery (1999-2000).

2000s

Fox arguably hit a few bumps in its programming during 1999 and the early 2000s. Many staple shows of the 1990s had ended or were on the decline. During this time, Fox put much of its efforts into producing "reality" fare with subjects often seen as extravagant, shocking, or distasteful. These included shows such as Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire?, Temptation Island, Joe Millionaire, and Married by America. During this time, Fox also featured weekly lowbrow shows such as World's Wildest Police Videos and When Animals Attack. In 2000, due to the success of Greed, Fox picked up another game show, It's Your Chance of a Lifetime starring Gordon Elliott for a one week trial. The show failed, and due to this, Fox decided to drop game shows altogether, thus cancelling Greed in July.

After shedding most of these shows, Fox regained a ratings foothold with acclaimed dramas such as 24, The O.C., and House, and comedies such as Arrested Development, The Bernie Mac Show and Malcolm in the Middle. By 2005, Fox's most popular show by far was the talent search American Idol, peaking at up to 30 million viewers on certain episodes. In May 2006, Fox cancelled five of its oldest live action sitcoms (That '70s Show, Malcolm in the Middle, The Bernie Mac Show, Arrested Development, and Stacked) leaving only two freshman comedies renewed for a second 2006-2007 season, The War at Home and The Loop, which is a record for Fox.

It was estimated in 2003 that Fox is viewable by 96.18% of all U.S. households, reaching 102,565,710 houses in the United States. Fox has 180 VHF and UHF owned-and-operated or affiliate stations in the U.S. and U.S. possessions. Fox began broadcasting in HDTV in 720p on September 12, 2004 with a series of NFL football games.

Fox hit a milestone in February 2005 by scoring its first-ever sweeps month 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 2004-2005 television season, Fox ranked #1 among the 18-49 demographic most appealing to advertisers for the first time in the network's history.

News

Unlike the "Big Three", Fox does not air national news programs. However, Fox does air live coverage of events such as the State of the Union Address and produces national news segments to air on the local Fox affiliate's news programs. Fox News Sunday airs on the local Fox network affiliates. In prime time, Fox first tried their hand at a news show in summer 1998, with a newsmagazine called 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 2002-2003 TV season, they tried again at airing a newsmagazine series called The Pulse, hosted by Fox News Channel's Shepard Smith.

However, the network and Fox News is thought by news insiders to be using its new syndicated newsmagazine Geraldo at Large (which airs in prime slots on all of Fox's O&Os) as a test run of rolling out a national newscast. Fox News chairman Roger Ailes is now also chairman of the Fox Television Stations division, and has been pushing for the network's O&O stations to have a more uniform image and presentation in their newscasts.

Criticism

Despite its popularity, Fox has also come under fire from many quarters, especially from fans of genre television. This displeasure stems from the premature cancellation of some series, such as Firefly, Dark Angel, The Tick, The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr., Keen Eddie, Tru Calling, Futurama, Wonderfalls, Undeclared, Reunion, The Critic, The Inside, Titus, Brimstone, Point Pleasant, Fastlane, Harsh Realm, The Lone Gunmen and Emmy-winner Arrested Development. The cancellation of Family Guy was also criticized, and in this case the program was picked up again after strong DVD sales and a successful initial run on the cable network Cartoon Network. The cancellation of Firefly also had fan backlash, with many criticizing poor advertisement and the broadcasting of only 11 of the 14 episodes in out of chronological order (the series two-hour $10 million pilot episode was aired last). Despite this, Firefly has been reported to be one of FOX's best selling DVDs ever since its DVD release in 2003, and has spawned a movie sequel by the name of Serenity from Universal Studios. Joss Whedon, the creator of Firefly has gone as far to publicly denounce FOX and says he will never work with them again (he also created, produced, wrote, and directed Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spin-off Angel). The network's justification for cancelling these programs has generally been poor ratings. Fans of these programs respond by pointing towards critical praise and dedicated core fan followings, and blame the ratings on inconvenient time slots (some shows are never given consistent time slots and the appropriate advertising to cover the moves, which has been used as a continuing joke on some of Fox's more stable programs, most notably The Simpsons), poor advertising or illogical broadcasting (for example, the first episode of Firefly was the last episode aired, and other episodes were aired out of order; furthermore, advertisements for Firefly often included spoilers for the series, scenes from episodes entirely different from the one advertised, music never found in the show, and misrepresentation of the characters' personalities. The advertisements can be found here). Also, Futurama was never given a consistent timeslot, eventually being relegated to 7 p.m. on Sundays, away from its target demographic and usually pre-empted for the NFL during football season. Fox also has a habit of moving successful shows to the Friday night death slot with little to no warning or advertising, then citing poor ratings and cancelling the show, a recent example being The Bernie Mac Show.

In 1997 a FOX affiliate fired two reporters, Jane Akre and Steve Wilson, who had refused instructions from superiors to revise a story on bovine growth hormone in ways that the reporters saw as being in conflict with the facts, and had threatened to report FOX to the FCC. The reporters sued under a Florida whistleblower law. A jury ruled that FOX had indeed ordered the reporters to distort the facts. FOX successfully appealed against judgement on the grounds that their First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and press protected them from such litigation, and that the FCC's policy against distortion of news was not a sufficiently significant rule for its breach to invoke the whistleblower law ([2], [3]).

The Parents Television Council named Fox "the worst network to watch with your children", describing many of the shows as "100% immoral."

Fox Sports

Main article: Fox Sports

Fox management, having seen the critical role that sports programming (soccer programming in particular) had played in the growth of satellite service BSkyB, believed that sports, and specifically professional football, would be the engine that would make Fox a major network the quickest.

To this end, Fox bid aggressively for football from the start. In 1987, after ABC initially hedged on renewing its contract to carry Monday Night Football, Fox offered the NFL to pick up the contract 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 established itself as a major network, chose to renew their contract with ABC.

Six years later, when the football contract was up for renewal again, Fox made what at the time was a bold and aggressive move to acquire the rights. Knowing that they would likely need to bid considerably more than the incumbent networks to acquire a piece of the package, Fox bid $1.58 billion for 4 years of rights to the NFC, considered the more desirable conference due to its presence in most of the largest U.S. markets, such as New York, Chicago and Philadelphia. To the surprise and shock of many, the NFL selected the Fox bid, in the process stripping CBS of football for the first time since 1952.

Fox's acquisition of football was a watershed event not only for the network but for the NFL as well. Not only was it the event that placed Fox on a par with the "big three" broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC) but it also ushered in an era of growth for the NFL which continues on largely to this day. More importantly, 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. Prior to this agreement 8 of these stations had been CBS affiliates, including WAGA, WTVT, WJBK, WITI, KSAZ, KDFW-all located in NFC markets (Atlanta, Tampa Bay, Detroit, Milwaukee (through the Green Bay Packers, who have a statewide presence), Phoenix, Dallas) as well as WJW in Cleveland and KTBC in Austin, Texas (2 stations in Missouri, NBC affiliate WDAF in Kansas City, and ABC affiliate KTVI in St. Louis also went to Fox; St. Louis two years later would become the home of the NFC Rams). Another company, Savvoy-Fox would switch its stations to Fox when the network decided to seek out more new VHF stations to affiliate outside New World -- Savvoy owned WVUE in New Orleans, WALA in Mobile, Alabama, KHON in Hawaii and WLUK in Green Bay.

The rights gave Fox many new viewers (and affiliates) and a platform for advertising its other shows. With a sports division now established with the arrival of the NFL, Fox would later acquire over-air broadcast rights to the National Hockey League (in 1995), Major League Baseball (in 1996), and NASCAR auto races (beginning with the 2001 season). With the exception of the NHL, they still have the broadcast rights to all of those sports today.

Since the network bought the rights to post-season baseball coverage, Fox has received criticism from non-baseball fans for not airing first-run original programming during October (Baseball fans point out that there are plenty of other broadcast and cable networks available on every TV package that do show original scripted programming). For the majority of the years that Fox has aired baseball, the network started the season for The Simpsons and other shows in November. In 2005, Fox started its season in September, took the month of October off to show the Major League Baseball playoffs, and resumed non-baseball programming in November. Both approaches have drawn criticism. Fox Sports has also received criticism from sports fans of bias towards teams in certain conferences especially during the Super Bowl and the World Series, usually the NFC in football (due to the fact that they own the rights to NFC games) and the AL, especially the New York Yankees (due to in part of FOX being based in NY), in baseball

Among baseball enthusiasts, Fox's coverage of Major League Baseball is not thought of highly. Most cite "whooshing" sound effects to accompany wipes, Scooter (a talking baseball created with the intent of teaching the younger audience the difference between pitches), and even analyst Tim McCarver as reasons for their disdain (even though Tim McCarver used to be an analyst at CBS and ABC before he worked at Fox).

In the past few years, when Fox aired new episodes of original programing at 7 p.m. on Sundays during football season, some of the markets, especially on the east coast, are unable to see all or part of the new episode of the scheduled show due to NFL overun. Futurama was especially victim to this network decision. Beginning with the 2005 season, Fox has extended their football postgame show to 8 p.m. (the weeks Fox has a doubleheader) or they air reruns of sitcoms (mostly The Simpsons and King of the Hill).

Beginning in 2001, Fox began covering NASCAR races, showing the first half of the season, with NBC covering the second half. Each year, the two networks swapped coverage of the season-opening Daytona 500 and the other race at Daytona International Speedway, the Pepsi 400, with Fox covering the odd-numbered years, and NBC showing the even-numbered years. For the 2001 Daytona 500, spirits were high as Fox was about to cover its first race, but sadly, on the last lap, a wreck claimed the life of 7-time Nextel Cup Series Champion Dale Earnhardt. In early 2006, NASCAR announced a new television deal in which Fox will get full rights to the first 13 races and the non-points Budweiser Shootout and Nextel All-Star Challenge for the next eight years, beginning in 2007. Fox will get exclusive rights to the Daytona 500 in this package, as well as two Craftsman Truck Series races.

Children's programming

Main article: [[:4Kids TV, Fox Kids]]

Fox began airing children's programming in 1990 when it launched the Fox Kids Network. Fox's childrens programing featured many cartoons and some live-action series (particularly fantasy violence programs) including Power Rangers, Bobby's World, The Tick, Eerie, Indiana, Masked Rider, VR Troopers, Big Bad Beetleborgs and Goosebumps. When The WB added the Kids' WB programming block in 1995, 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, then sell the four hours of Saturday morning time to 4Kids Entertainment. The block would be converted on September 14, 2002 to the FoxBox with all 4Kids programming, then in January 2005, the block's name changed again to 4Kids TV.

Fox advertises its children's programming in the early evening hours usually on Sundays, but most recently also on Fridays (except during NFL games) as opposed to Friday nights as NBC does when it advertises select programs from its Discovery Kids lineup.

Some Fox stations decide to pass along Fox's 4Kids TV block to another station in their market (either an independent station or a UPN affiliate) so they can air general entertainment or local news programming in the Saturday morning slot. WFLD 32 in Chicago, for example, has recently moved the 4KidsTV schedule to WPWR-TV Channel 50, which is a UPN affiliate (as well as a Fox Television Stations O&O), while Channel 32 airs news and children's programming in place of the shows. But the real stations behind the refusal to air Fox Kids are primarily the stations that were once owned by New World before merging with Fox Television Stations Group.

Fox stations that have dropped Fox's children's program block usually move the block to UPN affiliates because UPN stations usually have freed-up schedules on weekend mornings since UPN's own kids programming lineup dematerialized in 2002. Some WB stations also decide to pass along their Kids' WB block to another station in their market so they can air general entertainment programming on Saturday mornings.

Station standardization

During the early 1990s, Fox began having stations branded as "Fox", then the channel number, with the call signs nearby. By the mid-to-late 1990s, the call signs were minimized to be just barely readable to FCC requirements, and the stations were simply known as "Fox", then channel number. (e.g. Both WNYW in New York and WTTG in Washington, D.C. are referred to as "Fox 5.") This would be the start of the trend for other networks to do such naming schemes, especially at CBS, who uses the CBS Mandate on all of their O&O stations. NBC and ABC also do similar naming schemes, but not to that extreme.

However, while the traditional "Big Three" don't require their affiliates to have such naming schemes -- unless they happen to be owned and operated of those networks (though some affiliates choose to adopt it anyway) and only on their O&O's are required, Fox mandates it on all stations. All Fox affiliates must have a Fox-approved logo, and in some form or another, the station has to be referred to as "Fox", then the channel number or city. Several UHF Fox stations that operate on cable systems using a lower channel number tend to lean toward the practice of referring themselves as Fox then the city, such as for example: WFLD Fox Chicago, WCCB Fox Charlotte, KRXI Fox Reno (despite being a VHF station), WRLH Fox Richmond, KSAS-TV Fox Kansas (Wichita) and KABB Fox San Antonio. Whereas, other Fox stations refer themselves as Fox, then the channel and city together, thus avoiding confusion with the other cities should they use the same Fox channel branding -- "FOX 5" is a prime example: WAGA Fox 5 Atlanta, WNYW Fox 5 New York, WTTG Fox 5 DC, and KVVU Fox 5 Las Vegas.

These Fox stations are exceptions from the Fox branding mandate however;

• WSVN (Channel 7) in Miami does not have any Fox logos at all in its newscasts or graphics, going with a variation of the 'Circle 7' logo, and identifies as WSVN 7 or 7 News.
• WTVW (also Channel 7) in Evansville rebranded in 2004 to WTVW NewsChannel 7, with no Fox logos at all in its newscasts or graphics. It was later changed back to Fox 7, with the Fox logo back, in 2005.
• KTVU (Channel 2) in Oakland, which serves San Francisco and the rest of the Bay Area goes by Channel 2 generally, and the station's newscasts are called KTVU Channel 2 News or Mornings on 2, though the station does do some promotion under the Fox 2 name. In addition, the station continues to use its longtime 'Circle 2' logo, with the Fox logo perched in small type beneath the Circle 2's hook the only change to the logo since KTVU became a charter Fox affiliate in 1987.
• KCPQ (Channel 13) of Seattle is officially known as Q13 Fox, but usually goes by the branding Q13, with the end letter of the station's call sign prominent in the station's logo within a box next to the channel number. The Fox logo is contained in the same size type beneath the main 'Q13' logo.
• KHON (Channel 2) in Honolulu, Hawaii is currently branded KHON 2, which was rebranded from Fox 2.
• KFOX (Channel 14) in El Paso, Texas is simply called K-FOX TV, obviously based on the call sign, but it was called K-FOX 14 before rebranding it to drop the channel number mention.

Also to note historically, between 1994 and 1997, three stations which affiliated in the New World deal, Milwaukee's WITI (Channel 6), WJW-TV (Channel 8) in Cleveland, Ohio, and WAGA (Channel 5) in Atlanta advertised Fox separately from the rest of their channel's programming to try to build up the image that Fox was now on stronger stations in both cities, and that both stations were adding more news hours after being freed from their CBS affiliations.

WITI was generally known as Six is News throughout the day, but during Fox prime time and promotions advertised as Fox is Six. WJW went as Ei8ht is News (think of the numeral '8' as a 'g'; this was how it was visualized within the logo) and Fox is Ei8ht. WAGA was just known as Channel 5. When Fox bought the stations outright in 1997, they were rebranded normally as Fox 6, Fox 8, and Fox 5 respectively.

In 2006, All Fox O&O's are updating to a standard logo, which will be mostly the same for all stations. The logo consists of a white Fox on a red background on top, the channel number in white over a blue Fox Searchlight background (this being the largest element), and the city name in white over red on the bottom.

Fall 2006 Line-Up

Further information: List of programs broadcast by Fox

Differences between Fox and the "Big Three" networks

Fox has many differences between it and the Big Three (ABC, CBS and NBC). One big difference is its programming schedule. Fox airs two hours of network programming a night (three hours on Sundays), which allows for many of its stations to air local news during the 10 p.m. time slot. FOX's original reason for the reduced number of primetime hours was to avoid fulfilling the FCC's requirements at the time to be considered a network [4] and to be free of resulting regulations. Although FCC rules have been relaxed, the 10 p.m. timeslot has proven to be quite lucrative for FOX's affiliates.

One major factor is the target audience of the network. The Big Three usually target middle-aged adults and senior citzens. Fox's target audience is similar to that of MTV and the CW - teenagers and young adults.

Fox owned-and-operated stations air more local news than any other Fox station in the country, airing up to 50 hours a week of news on stations such as WDAF in Kansas City and KDFW in Dallas. The reason why some of these O&Os air so much local news on a daily schedule has to do with the fact that Fox has no national morning or evening news programs unlike the Big Three. This is why many Fox stations that have a local morning news air the newscast for four to five hours. But this practice began when many stations (as ABC, CBS or NBC affiliates) were owned by New World, which had stations drop nationwide morning shows for two extra hours of localized morning newscasts. Most of Fox's affiliates in the top 50 Nielsen markets currently air more than two newscasts a day or more. However, some smaller markets do air local newscasts other than a 10 p.m. newscast. Fox, however, did air a nationally-based morning show called Fox After Breakfast between 1996 to 1998, of which would air on all affiliates at 9 to 10 a.m. as opposed to the other major networks airing theirs at 7 to 9 a.m. The show has since been cancelled.

FOX News Special Presentation title card for FOX News coverage on the FOX Broadcast Network.

Despite the lack of national morning or evening programs, Fox does provide live news coverage by Fox News during breaking news events. Fox News Sunday airs on the local Fox network affiliates.

WTVT in Tampa/St. Petersburg airs the most hours of news of any Fox station, affiliate or O&O.

Some Fox affiliates not owned by Fox do air as many hours of news as one of the Big Three. Tulsa affiliate KOKI (owned by Clear Channel) airs a nightly 9PM newscast. Monday through Fridays though, KOKI also airs newscasts at 5 p.m. & 5:30 p.m. and in late April will launch morning and early afternoon newscasts.

Fox does not air soap operas or any other network daytime programming (game shows, talk shows) despite being a major network. Because of this, affiliates have to fill time with syndicated programming. Another note, even though Fox produces daytime courtroom shows Divorce Court and Judge Alex, the network airs them in syndication mode, rather than through the network itself. This means that Fox O&Os will very likely be contracted to air the shows, but in other markets several Fox stations not owned by Fox would be contracted to air the shows, but other Fox stations would not air them but instead passed on to another local non-Fox counterpart. And Fox was the only Big Four network to air children's programming in the morning, afternoon or both as Fox Kids.

While Fox does air sports programming, unlike ABC, NBC and CBS, Fox rarely airs sports programming (except during the NFC Playoffs) on both Saturdays and Sundays and they do not air sports all afternoon on weekends given the limited amount of sports programming Fox carries (which is limited to National Football League games from the National Football Conference, NASCAR races and Major League Baseball). Though in retrospect, the Big Three does not air sports programming all afternoon on weekends either on some dates. In some cases, ABC does not air sports programming at all on some Saturdays or Sundays.

Note

• All times given in the Eastern Time Zone.

See also

• Friday night death slot
• Fox Sports
• List of Fox affiliates
• List of programs broadcast by Fox
• List of United States television networks
• Fox Kids
• 4Kids TV
• Fox slogans

Further reading

• Alex Ben. Block (1990), Outfoxed ISBN 0312039042
• Daniel M. Kimmel (2004), The Fourth Network ISBN 1566635721

External links

• Fox website
• Template:Imdb company