The Fox Sports Media Group announced news on Tuesday at their upfront media presentation that they are launching a new 24-hour sports network that will directly compete with ESPN and former television host Regis Philbin will be headlining a new show on the network.
According to EW.com and the NY Times, the company is launching Fox Sports 1 as a re-brand of the "Speed" network and will be broadcast in over 90 million homes after debuting on Aug. 17. Regis Philbin will host a new show on the network called "Rush Hour".
Philbin allowed the news to slip on Monday while appearing on "The View", saying "Yes, I think I will be doing another show," the host said vaguely before giving a few specifics: "Fox is starting a sports channel. Everybody is starting a sports channel now, you know? Nothing but 24 hours of sports ... Regis is going to have a show on that."
The show is called "Rush Hour", which will be a panel show in the same vein as "The View" with Barbara Walters, who Philbin spoke to on Monday. According to EW.com, the panel show has "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" producer Michael Davies is attached in a production role.
The news about the show was first reported by the New York Post, who wrote that Philbin will be joined by as-of-yet unknown Fox broadcasters and personalities to talk sports stories from throughout the day. The 81-year-old was formerly the host of "Live With Regis and Kelly."
Fox is the latest media company to join the 24-hour sports cycle, joining NBC and CNN, who have had less success than ESPN, who has been the number one sports network for a number of years.
"We think sports is a huge arena that has room in it to build a really attractive businesses," Chase Carey, News Corporation's president and chief operating officer told analysts on an earnings call last month, according to the NY Times. He said that the company recognizes the escalating costs of sports rights but "in a world of increasing fragmentation, we think sports continues to be a more and more important and unique part of that overall landscape."
ESPN has multiple channels on television as well as a huge presence on the Internet with ESPN.com and Grantland.com as well as espnW.com. The company makes $6 billion annually and has over 100 million subscribers.
"Do I expect them to be ESPN? No," said David Bank, managing director of global media and Internet research at RBC Capital Markets,. "Mega-success will be hard to determine for five years."
