'' is the brand name of the
Fox Broadcasting Company 's coverage of the
National Football League 's
National Football Conference games, produced by
Fox Sports . Game coverage is usually preceded by the pre-game show ''
FOX NFL Sunday ''.
The broadcast's distinctive ,
Reed Hays and
Phil Garrod .
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 ). FOX management, having seen the critical role that sports programming (
Football 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 (FOX's first full year on the air), 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
$ 1.3 billion 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.
Despite a few successful shows, the network did not have a significant market share until the early 1990s when News Corp. bought more TV station groups, such as
New World Communications ,
Chris-Craft Industries ,
BHC Communications , and
United Television , making it the largest owner of television stations in the United States.
See Also: NFL on CBS
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 four years of rights to the
NFC . The NFC was considered the more desirable conference (as opposed to the
AFC package that
NBC carried at the time) 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, in late
1993 , the NFL selected the FOX bid, in the process stripping CBS of football for the first time since
1956 . FOX's coverage would start in the
1994 Season .
CBS apparently underestimated the value of its rights with respect to its
Advertising revenues and to its
Promotional opportunities for other network programming. Indeed, FOX was still an upstart player in 1993, not yet considered on par with the "Big Three" networks -
CBS ,
NBC and
ABC . It had already had offbeat hits such as ''
The Simpsons '', but had no news or sports divisions, and its coverage was significantly weaker than that of its elder counterparts.
However, the vast resources of
Rupert Murdoch allowed the network to grow quickly, primarily to the detriment of CBS. After bringing in
David Hill from Murdoch's
U.K. -based
Sky Sports to head-up the new Fox Sports division, FOX raided the
CBS Sports staff, hiring longtime producer
Ed Goren as Hill's second-in-command, plus CBS personalities such as
Pat Summerall ,
John Madden ,
James Brown ,
Terry Bradshaw ,
Matt Millen , and
Dick Stockton , all of whom were prominently featured in FOX's NFL coverage.
In spring 1994, FOX's parent
News Corporation struck an alliance with
New World Communications , by now a key ownership group with several
VHF CBS affiliates in NFC markets, and wary of a CBS without football. Nearly all of New World's stations converted ''en masse'' to FOX beginning that fall. The rights gave FOX many new viewers (and affiliates) and a platform for advertising its other shows.
See Also: Fox affiliate switches of 1994
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.
While the heavy concentration of population in NFC markets - as opposed to the smaller markets generally served by the AFC - virtually guaranteed a substantial audience, its instant success has nonetheless been remarkable given the substantial differences between FOX's coverage and the coverage provided by
ABC ,
CBS ,
ESPN ,
TNT , and
NBC up to that time.
Fox's launch slogan was ''"Same Game, New Attitude."'' Indeed, its studio show focused more on entertainment and less on in-depth discussion of X's and O's. It also introduced bolder and innovative graphics, for instance, a continuous on-screen time-and-score graphic that Hill had originally used on Sky's
Soccer coverage. And it made much greater use of the sounds in the stands and on the field thanks to
Parabolic Microphone s. These innovations were quickly adopted by rival networks and helped to drive the development of further innovations such as the virtual first-down line.
See Also: FoxBox (sports)
In its debut in the
1994 Season , FOX's coverage featured the first "
Scoring Bug ." A transparent white graphic in the upper corner of the screen displayed the score and game clock throughout the entire telecast, an NFL first.
By
1996 , the graphic changed to a full-statistics panel, where down and distance, penalty, and key in-game statistics would pop in and out when necessary. Within a couple years, the scoring bug became a staple on all sports broadcasts, on all networks, though NBC still took many more years to get a bug into any sports broadcast, and golf telecasts still do not use them at all. (They have been phased in on tennis telecasts.) In
2001 , the graphic changed from a bug to a banner spanning the top of the screen, and included a scrolling graphic displaying real-time scores of other games in progress.
The first banner used was simpler than the ones used today. A simple black rectangle spanned the top of the screen from left to right, displaying the abbreviations of both teams in white. The scores would be shown in white boxes, sometime during the 2001 NFL playoffs changed to yellow, next to the team. The center showed the game clock in white, and to its right was the quarter("1st qtr", "2nd qtr", etc). The far right was the ''NFL on FOX'' logo. This banner was used for ''
Major League Baseball On FOX '' broadcasts in
2004 until that year's postseason.
to
2002 . This is the original version with the scores shown in white boxes.]]
to
2002 utilized during FOX's coverage of Super Bowl 36. The boxes contaning the scores changed to yellow as shown here]]
to the present. Note that it became thinner and the ''NFL on FOX'' logo moved to the far left.]]
The banner was given a cosmetic upgrade beginning with the
2003 Season . Instead of a large black rectangle, the banner consisted of several small, black parallelograms. Instead of abbreviations for the teams, their logos were now used. During the
2003 NFL Playoffs , the logos were reduced in size, and the team abbreviations were put back beside them
Midway through 2004, the banner was slightly changed again. The team logos were removed, the abbreviations now took their place. This time, they were in the team's main color, and the banner returned to a large black rectangle. During the 2005 holiday season, for the week 15 Saturday game (
TB at
NE ), a new white banner, resembling a chrome finish and first introduced at the start of FOX's coverage of the
2005 World Series , debut with animated snow accumulating on top. Periodically an animated snowplow would clear the screen of snow. The following week, the new banner was adopted for all games, however without the snow animation. The team abbreviations became white letters in the team's main color. This banner is still used for ''Major League Baseball on FOX'' broadcasts.
The current, and newest iteration of the scoring banner for the
2006 Season features the real-time scores as a permanent fixture on the extreme right side of the bar, while the coloring of the banner changes to the colors of the team currently possessing the ball.
During playoff games and games featured on special days or holidays (such as the
Thanksgiving Classic , NFC vs. NFC game), the scoring bar instead shows either the NFL Thanksgiving Classic logo, the NFL Divisional Playoffs/NFC Championship logo, or a special banner celebrating whichever holiday falls during that week from Fox Sports (for instance,
Confetti and a party horn with a traditional ''
Happy New Year '' message). This iteration was also utilized for the network's
Bowl Championship Series coverage, with the bowl's logo in the scoring bar for each game.
At the beginning of the season, a virtual on-field graphic showing an arrow pointing towards the direction of advancement and the down/yardage information began to be used on all plays. This has proved to be a controversial feature, however, as it obscures the players and often the action on the field (despite it's controversy, CBS and NBC have introduced similar graphics during the 2007 Pre-Season); at the same time, the down/yardage information also displays on the scoring banner, resulting in duplicate presentation of the same information. The bar has also been enhanced for
HDTV and is thinner than previous versions, with little transparency. Also, the ''NFL on FOX'' logo is on the far left instead of the far right. On the HDTV broadcasts, the area above the banner features a translucent slanting pattern going from left-to-right across the screen. During the 2006 preseason telecasts, the quarter was indicated by illuminating four buttons (number of buttons lit indicated the quarter), but due to visibility difficulties, the quarter returned to being numerically represented for the regular season.
There was one exception to this package for the 2006 season, as FOX had to revert to the current
Fox Sports Net (and former main Fox Sports) scoring banner and graphics package for its final regular season game of the year,
San Francisco 49ers at
Denver Broncos on
December 31 ,
2006 , due to a
Second Blizzard In A Week hitting
Denver , preventing the usual amount of equipment for FOX's NFL coverage to arrive before the game.
FSN Rocky Mountain (Denver's FSN network) assisted in the production of the game on short notice by providing the graphical production and other production services. Also, the "
1st & Ten " graphic lines denoting the
Line Of Scrimmage and
First Down Line were unavailable for this broadcast.
FOX's NFL coverage remains the most-watched of any of the NFL rightsholders, with ratings for the network's 4:15 p.m. ET games frequently surpassing even those of the venerable ''
Monday Night Football '' when it was on ABC.
After the
2005 season,
James Brown left FOX to return to
CBS Sports , where he would be the host of ''
The NFL Today ''. On
August 16 ,
2006 , after weeks of speculation, the network officially announced that
Joe Buck would take over the role. The move also changes the show from a permanent Los Angeles studio into a portable studio configuration, similar to the pregame show for ''
NASCAR On FOX '', where analysts
Terry Bradshaw ,
Howie Long , and
Jimmy Johnson joined Buck at the of the game to which Buck is assigned as
Play-by-play announcer.
Curt Menefee worked all halftime shows and all postgame shows on non-doubleheader Sundays, also from the same game site with the same analysts. Menefee hosted ''FOX NFL Sunday'' during the several weeks in October when Buck is not available; during that time, Buck called
Major League Baseball postseason games, including the
World Series . The
October 15 ,
22 and
29 shows were broadcast from the
Los Angeles studios; the show returned to the road on
November 5 .
See Also: Major League Baseball on FOX
It was also announced that weather reporter
Jillian Barberie would not return for the coming season, as Barberie wished to stay at home in Los Angeles with her family.http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/hiestand-tv/2006-08-16-hiestand-pga_x.htm Barberie did participate in at least one of the studio shows.
During the 2006 season,
Chris Rose provided updated highlights during the game from the Los Angeles studio as a
Voice Talent .
On
November 17 ,
2006 , a source told the
Los Angeles Times that the final two pregame shows of
2006 would take place in the Los Angeles studios, with Buck hosting and
Dick Stockton taking Buck's place at the games alongside
Troy Aikman . The source cited that declining
Ratings no longer justified its high production costs, including
Security Expenses . A FOX spokesman would only say that changes were being considered.http://www.latimes.com/sports/custom/extras/la-sp-tvcol17nov17,1,6350453.column?page=2&coll=la-sports-extras
See Also: NFL_playoffs%2C_2006-07#NFC:_New_Orleans_Saints_27.2C_Philadelphia_Eagles_24
The Fox Broadcasting Company has come under firehttp://parentstv.org/PTC/publications/release/2007/0116.asp by the
Parents Television Council for displaying a fan wearing a shirt clearly saying ''"FUCK DA EAGLES!"'' in Saints colors. Three days after the broadcast, the network apologized. The Saints fan,
Heather Rothstein , was contacted by
Maxim Magazine and was given a photo shoothttp://www.maximonline.com/girls_of_maxim/pictures_and_bio/1262/FckDaEaglesHeather.girl?src=maxim_ed.
Also during the
2006 NFC Championship between the
Chicago Bears and the
New Orleans Saints at
Soldier Field , in one shot from the overhead camera angle of the crowd, three Bears fans can clearly be seen giving the middle finger to the camera, uncensored.
See Also: FOX NFL Sunday
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