Fox Cable Keeping Fuel TV After Sales Talks Earlier This Year

By Tripp Mickle & John Ourand, Staff Writers, SportsBusiness Journal

Fox Sports Chair & CEO David Hill yesterday said that Fox Cable has decided to keep Fuel TV, a channel the company had been looking to sell for at least a year. Hill in an e-mail to THE DAILY wrote, "While it's true Fox was in talks with Viacom earlier this year about the sale of Fuel TV, we have re-assessed its value and determined that there are exciting new technologies that provide long-term opportunities within the action sports space we now wish to develop. We're delighted with the performance of Fuel TV and remain committed to action sports. We look forward to its future growth and success as a Fox network." This comes after a report in Monday's SportsBusiness Journal that Viacom had pulled out of the talks because of distribution concerns. Hill called that report "inaccurate." The SBJ story cites sources who say it is "at least the second time advanced conversations with a potential buyer have ended without a sale." The channel will remain part of David Hill's group at Fox. Earlier this year, Hill was given responsibility for all Fox' sports operations, including broadcast, cable, online and radio.