Fox Television Stations | Principles & Practices

by Jasmine DeGroat

Fox Television Stations

Fox Logo

Basic Information

Created by: Rupert Murdoch

Press Contacts: Brian Lewis, Executive Vice President; Erica Keane, Vice President of Media Relations

Founded in: 1986

Address: Fox Television Stations, Inc.

1211 Avenue of the Americas, 21st Floor

New York, NY, 10036

Contact: 212-301-5400

Description

Fox Television Stations is one of the largest owned and operated network broadcast groups. It is a subsidiary of the Fox Entertainment Group. Fox owns and operates 27 television stations and covers over 18 different markets. Fox covers nearly 37.34% of televisions in homes in the United States. They have six duopolies in the top 10 markets: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Washington D.C, and Houston. All Fox Television Stations are owned by News Corp. [1] Fox is currently rated the #1 news network network in the United States which is an accomplishment considering Fox is not one the original “Big 3” broadcast stations. Due to it’s accomplishments and popularity Fox can rightfully claim itself as the Fourth broadcast network.

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Right Here, Right Now

1.15.12:

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Fox’s hit series Glee and New Girl took two of the five spots of Golden Globe Nominees for Best Television Series (comedy or musical). Also actress Zooey Deschanel was nominated for best performance by an Actress in a television series(comedy or musical) for New Girl.[2].

1.16.12: Fox’s 2012 midseason lineup begins. This is an exciting time for Fox because they are premiering four new television shows. The first to air is the anticipated new mystery drama Alcatraz. A couple days later Kiefer Sutherland returns to Fox with a bang to star in the new series Touch. Due to the popularity of their original series Bones creatos have created a spin-off of the show that will premier in the midseason called The Finder. The series will premier immediately following an encore presentation of the Bones finale. The last season premier taking place in the midseason will be animated and air on Sunday alongside their already popular animated shows such as The Simpsons, Family Guy, and American Dad. The new animated series Napoleon Dynamite is a cartoon spin-off of the of the 2004 movie. American Idol will premier in the Midseason along with Breaking In. Shows such as New Girl, Glee, Raising Hope, and House will also be on the schedule.[3]

Watch Fox Midseason Press Tour Preview

1.25.12: Fox’s 24 star Kiefer Sutherland talks about how he felt returning to Fox after a two year hiatus to star in the new series Touch.[4]

2.16.12: Fox’s The Simpsons air their 500th episode.[5]

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The 500th episode made The Simpsons the “longest-running prime time series of all time with an astonishing birthday of 22 years and two months. With Fox celebrating their 25th birthday in the next couple months, this number shows that The Simpson’s have been with Fox from the start and has somehow managed to grow with it’s viewers despite all of the criticism it has received throughout the years for being too crude. The 500th episode featured a plot where The Simpson’s get ousted out of Springfield into an uninhabited area called “The Outlands.” In this new area the Simpsons enjoy being away from Springfield but one by one “Springfielders” follow the family into the new area and ultimately replicate the town of Springfield in the new area.[6]

2.28.12: Fox’s two new series’ Alcatraz and The Finders which aired last month are predicted to be canceled after the first season due to the low ratings they are receiving. [7]

2.29.12: James Murdoch stepped down as executive chairman because he wanted to begin expanding the the television business to an international level.[8]

3.12.12 A deal between Bounce TV and Fox Television Stations takes place which now makes Bounce TV available in the Los Angeles market.[9]

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Bounce TV is a network designed for an African American Audience. In addition to Los Angeles, Fox also launched this network in NY and Baltimore which not only makes it available to the top 5 markets but it also gives it access to almost 75% of homes with African-American inhabitants. The Bounce TV launch by Fox was said to demonstrate Fox’s “significant commitment to serving minority consumers by ensure that the African American Community has access to free, culturally relevant entertaining programming for many years to come.” [10]

4.5.12: Terra Nova is cancelled by Fox. Fox, however, intends to try and shop the show to other networks. [11]

4.11.12: Breaking In, which premiered earlier this season is pulled from the schedule due to poor ratings.[12]

4.17.12: Fox Television Stations added to Worldnow‘s roster. What this means is that Fox will now “incorporate platforms, which include CMS, online video and mobile, across all of its stations”[13] Capturing Fox Television Stations was said to be Worldnow’s biggest prize yet. The company now is the provider of online/mobile platforms to 40% of news producing TV stations in the United States. Fox got rid of their previous platform EndPlay which is a rival of Worldnow. [14]

4.22.12:

Courtesy of Fox

Fox Celebrates their 25th Anniversary special. During this time Fox will celebrate by playing the television shows that they first started out with when the network was created. The network will also air reunion specials with actors from some of their most famous shows from In Living Color to That 70’s Show. During this special Fox takes the time to recognize how far they’ve come since their very first television show airing in 1987. Fox is recognized during this time as the most consistent risk-takers of any other network. Fox is credited for being one of the first shows to introduce the idea of the not-so-modern family. During the time of the networks creation the traditional “Cosby-Like” family was the traditional sitcom but Fox broke the mold with the provocative series Married…With Children which was criticized at first but led to the new era of “dysfunctional-family sitcoms” which can now in 2012 be viewed on every major network with shows such as Modern Family to Everybody Loves Raymond. Fox also celebrates is successes with competition reality shows. American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance are widely popular shows that still currently air on the network. These shows manage to maintain their high ratings adding to the many shows on Fox that have longevity along with extreme popular.[15]

Preview of Anniversary Special

4.30.12: Fox orders final season order from Fringe. The series will be allowed to produce 13 more episodes for their final season. [16]

5.14.12: Fox-TV Upfront is scheduled

Sources:

1. http://www.newscorp.com/managment/foxtvstations.html

2. http://www.goldenglobes.org

3. http://www.aoltv.com/2011/12/01/fox-2012-midseason-schedule

4. http://foxallaccess.blogs.fox.com/2012/01

5. http://foxallaccess.blogs.fox.com

6. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/20/the-simpsons-500-thrown-out-springfield-video_n_1288286.html

7. http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2012/02/28/fox-alcatraz-the-finder-both-likely-to-be-canceled-does-that-help-terra-nova/122065

8. http://www.newscorp.com/news/index.html