Fox Sports Network (FSN) President Jeff Shell told CBS
MarketWatch's David Wilkerson that FSN "is scoring big" on
ad sales and is "is on a pace" to post a 40% increase in ad
sales over the fourth quarter of '98. Shell: "I would say
that the network market is just red hot. Our network ad
sales are probably up about 60 percent over last year. ...
Local, on a market-by-market basis, varies. I'd say we're
up about 20 to 25 percent over last year, which to me is
even more impressive, because our distribution really didn't
change. It's just purely the heat of local sports." Shell
added that "the national spot market" is up "probably an
average" 20%. Shell said FSN's regional affils "are
performing very well," and while not one region is "really
dominating," Shell said there are "a couple of regional
shows that are really doing great," including "Sportsbeat"
on Fox Sports Pittsburgh. Shell added cable operators are
"going crazy" over FSN's upcoming digital cable tier, which
allows viewers to access out-of-town regional sports news.
Shell: "I think [FSN] is one of the best-positioned digital
programmers out there, in the sense that we have a number of
channels up and running. " Shell, on ratings for FSN's
"Primetime": "The news category is down a bit, overall, from
last year. (ESPN's) 'SportsCenter,' probably, is down
somewhere in the 20 percent range (compared to) the fourth
quarter of last year. ... We're actually up vs. last year,
slightly." Shell gave his thoughts on ESPN: "I think that
we have a tendency to compare ourselves too much to them.
... We offer what we believe is a better thing [than] ESPN,
a better alternative" (CBS MarketWatch, 12/18).
