Fox Sports President & COO Eric Shanks since October '13 has seen FS1 become the "fastest-growing network in cable," according to a cover-story Q&A with Jon Lafayette of BROADCASTING & CABLE. Shanks was named B&C's Network Exec of the Year for '14. Below are excerpts from the Q&A.
Q: 21st Century Fox COO Chase Carey has said Fox Sports 1 is ahead of plan. Where do you see it?
Shanks: Since we've launched we've actually added things that really weren't in the plan from the beginning, like the FIFA World Cup and U.S. Open golf with the USGA. I'd say even with all those additional investments, yeah, we're still on plan, or ahead of plan.
Q: What else is on your to-do list?
Shanks: In-market streaming for baseball. You have the ability to deliver all of your baseball product, including the World Series and all of your postseason games, nationally and all of our Games of the Week nationally. The one thing that we're still working with baseball on is the ability to bring your local team, every game, to your mobile device. Both us and the league are really engaged and hopefully trying to find a solution that works for everybody by the beginning of next season.
Q: The past year, what's been the toughest call you've had to make?
Shanks: The Dodgers were one of the crown jewels in our portfolio. But after much soul-searching and trying to figure out where we fit in to the future of the Dodgers, we just decided that it didn't end up making sense for us.
Q: Are we near the peak of the sports business, or is there still room for this to grow as far as the television business goes?
Shanks: The value of sports inside of the context of entertainment will no doubt continue to grow as the entertainment choices -- scripted and nonfiction -- continue to grow. Now as that continues to grow, how quickly do the economics follow it is the question. ... The value of sports absolutely will continue to go up, but how quickly the economics follow that, that comes on a deal-by-deal basis.
Q: The king of all the sports leagues is the NFL but they have had problems this season. Have you seen all the negative headlines about player conduct having an effect on your business broadcasting football games this year?
Shanks: From a metrics standpoint, I think you have to say you haven't seen anything that would lead you to believe that that as had an effect on pure viewership, pure interest in the games themselves (BROADCASTING & CABLE, 12/1 issue).
