From the great Joe Flint from the Los Angeles Times, it appears that without much fanfare, the much-discussed, but barely-hyped Fox Sports 2 will launch at the same time of the highly anticipated Fox Sports 1 in August.
In March, Fox with a lot of pomp and circumstance announced Fox Sports 1, the new national sports network that will take the place of Speed on August 17. During the FS1 announcement, Fox did not make any mention of Fox Sports 2, this despite speculation that Fox would use that to replace Fuel.
Last month, your humble writer asked a Fox Sports spokesman when an announcement on Fox Sports 2 would be made and was told “not at this time.”
Flint writes that while Fox Sports 1 is getting a big marketing push on various media platforms, there will be a much softer launch for FS2. Fuel currently airs a heavy menu of UFC programming and will probably continue, but with more emphasis on other sports like NASCAR and spillover programming from FS1.
Fox Sports 1 will rely on college basketball and football, MLB, NASCAR and UFC for live events. It has already announced some of its studio programming such as Fox Sports Live, its competitor to ESPN’s SportsCenter, Crowd Goes Wild a talk show hosted by Regis Philbin and Fox Football Daily co-hosted by Curt Menefee and Jay Glazer.
No word on the programming on Fox Sports 2, but expect that to be coming down the line in the next few months. As always, we’ll continue to monitor the latest news on Fox Sports 1 and Fox Sports 2.
