Media conglomerate News Corporation is taking steps towards launching a national US cable-television sports channel, according to Bloomberg.
News Corp is considering converting its action sports channel Fuel, which is available in 36 million US homes, to create the new channel. The channel would compete with the NBC Sports and CBS Sports networks as well as ESPN, the most popular cable-television sports channel in the country.
Bloomberg said News Corp was assembling the rights and carriage deals to launch the channel through private negotiations with sports rights-holders and pay-television platforms.
The channel could launch by the end of this year and David Hill, the chairman of Fox Sports – a unit of the Fox network, which is owned by News Corp – is reported to be leading the project.
David Joyce, an analyst at investment advisory company Miller Tabak & Co, said that ESPN would be well positioned to withstand the new competition due to its rights deal for NFL American football, which runs until the 2021-22 season, as well as long-term NBA basketball and MLB baseball rights deals.