As FSN prepares to kick off the first of its "Regional
Sports Report" shows tonight, FSN Exec VP/Programming Arthur
Smith said "regional news has always been our destiny."
Smith: "Not only is ["Regional Sports Report"] going to be
different from a content point of view, but we also think
it's going to be different from a style point of view, and
that it is going to be more conversational, more analytical,
it's really going to get into the nitty gritty of your team
as well as providing the local perspective on national
stories." Smith said each regional show will have the
freedom "to capture the personality of their own region."
FSN will assist each show in "terms of resources and help
them out in terms of news gathering, but there will be lots
of room for the individual operations to do what they need
to do to better serve their audience." Smith: "The markets
are different. We want people to feel like this is their
sportscast." FSN Exec Producer Milt Weiss said the show's
content "will go very local, but not because we need to fill
[time], but because that's what people in that market are
interested in. We will have, obviously, coverage of
professional, Division I college, but we'll also hit
Division II and III, we'll hit high schools. ... You will
see it as a broad range of coverage. ... The problem is what
do we leave out and make sure we get the most interesting
material in." Weiss said that the regional approach should
lure viewers: "This is a very viable alternative at 11:00pm.
Most nights, this is not going to have you turning out the
light and going to bed feeling really negative about the
world in which you live. ... The 'SportsCenters, the
CNN/SIs, even, frankly, the Fox 'National [Sports] Report,'
by definition, since they are national, they've got to cover
every score all across the country. They don't have the
time to open it up and really get into any one team in any
depth like we will be able to." But in covering national
stories, Weiss said, "We always [must] remember to bring the
story home. We will look at major events and say to
ourselves, 'Is there an angle and approach to take that is
not the same they're taking on the national shows.' Smith,
on ratings projections: "We think there's enough passionate
local sports fans to make it viable and we have heard from
them and we have tested" (THE DAILY).
