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| FSN COO Randy Freer |
As COO at Fox Sports Networks,
RANDY FREER oversees all day-to-day operations, including production, programming, promotion, marketing and scheduling, at FSN and FSN’s owned-and-operated RSNs, whose reach extends to over 81 million homes. In his four-plus years in office, he has been a key driver in FSN’s increased focus on localism and in local HD/new media initiatives. Freer spoke recently with SportsBusiness Journal
New York bureau chief
Jerry Kavanagh.
| FAVORITES |
| Piece of music: “Jungleland” by BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN. |
| Vacation spot: Park City, Utah. |
| Author: PAULO COELHO. |
| Quote: “There’s a choice you have to make in everything you do, so keep in mind that in the end, the choice you make makes you.” I’m not sure if JOHN WOODEN said that himself, but I read it in one of his writings. |
| Sporting event: The ACC basketball tournament. |
| Movie: “The Godfather.” |
| Last book read: “The Other Side of Me,” a memoir by SIDNEY SHELDON. |
| Athlete you most enjoy watching: I’d say MAGIC JOHNSON and LARRY BIRD, but that shows my age. In today’s world, LEBRON JAMES is elevating himself to that role. And TIM DUNCAN, because it looks so effortless. |
| Indispensable piece of personal technology: TiVo. |
| Best professional advice you received: Embrace the disruption to your current business of the models. |
| Best business decision: Accepting a job at FSN vs. accepting a job with Central European Enterprises that required moving to Russia in 1996. |
| Most influential person: PAM HAERING. She has taught me about everything that is important in life. |
| Biggest challenge: Raising with my wife our 4-year-old twin daughters in a world that is beyond our control. |
| Biggest fear: Missing an opportunity because we don’t act swiftly enough. |
Q: What’s new at FSN?
Freer: What is new at FSN is often what is old in this business. That is, regardless of what new technology is on the horizon or what new distribution method is next, local sports continue to be one of the main drivers in the adoption stage and the economic stage.
Q: DAVID HILL said, “Why we got into the regional business is because TV is local and sports is tribal.”
Freer: That sums it up. When you get right down to it, sports is as local as you can get and has as passionate a following as television and programming can get, whether you’re talking about pro sports or major collegiate sports or your own high schools. There’s always that affinity and that passion for your own experiences. And many of those favorite sports experiences have been shared and passed down from generation to generation.
Q: The ideal is a mix of national and regional coverage?
Freer: Our credo is really to create localism at any and every level. We gear ourselves to being local as much as we can with a mix of programming that is provided nationally that allows us to focus on creating localism. When you have a multitude of regional sports networks, it is, quite honestly, hard to create 24 hours of live local programming that is relevant and/or good.
Q: Does a broadcast model of a network of local affiliates create any conflicts for the national side of the business?
Freer: It has its own inherent challenges. It makes it certainly more difficult to program and market a national service when in any given region what you’re marketing may not be on for three or four days. That’s one of the reasons why we have continued to increase our focus on localism.
Q: Is there a risk to professional sports leagues’ long-term popularity in shifting from broadcast to cable television?
Freer: Professional sports has many risks related to what younger demographics are doing today. We all are attempting to embrace those risks and find ways to offset some of them. So, if you are a professional sports league or team, you want to make sure that your product is available to the widest possible audience. A mix of cable and broadcast certainly helps that. To some degree there has to be some consistency to your mix of cable and broadcast. I also think that the increase in additional distribution mechanisms -- whether it’s the Internet, downloads, or all the other things we hear about -- gives teams another way to reach not only younger demographics but all demographics and all people who are interested in the product. And certainly in an affordable world where you can get information about virtually anything at any time, that will only help increase the connection of professional sports teams with their fans.
Q: There is an increasing number of teams starting, or trying to start, their own television networks (the Indians and the Mets are the latest). Is that a challenge to FSN?
Freer: I think it’s a compliment to FSN on one level; on another level it creates its own challenges. I think the key is that many people have tried, and we still are very positive about what we do and how we work with teams in a partnership to make sure that their product is as widely distributed as possible. Look at the challenges the YES Network had in the first two years to get distribution. We’ll see what goes on with the Mets, but look at the challenges the Twins had and the Nationals have had so far. I’m not sure that’s good for anyone. And, ultimately, is that good for a baseball team -- or any team -- if they can’t get a distributor or can’t get the widest possible audience out there?
Q: Do you view it as competition?
Freer: We look at it certainly as a competitor in the marketplace, and we encourage all teams to evaluate all of their options and determine what they believe their best and core businesses are and how they can best maximize those. It’s interesting that the Indians are choosing to go from full distribution of their games on a 24/7 network with pre- and post-programming and other programming as well, to a local originated channel in most markets where games show up at some point in time. We’ll see how that works for them.
Q: PAUL SWANGARD, director of the University of Oregon’s Warsaw Sports Management Center, quoted in Forbes, said, “Teams are realizing that it’s not their business to be in broadcasting.”
Freer: There is a multitude of challenges. One is, first and foremost, distribution. Can you get your product distributed to the widest possible audience in your marketplace? Two, at what cost does that distribution come? If it increases a consumer’s cable or satellite bill, does that help anyone in the process? Three, you have to program this network. And programming for 24 hours is a challenge. Certainly you can always find something to put on the air, but putting relevant and good programming on is a challenge.
Q: Swangard cited the costs of staffing, production, equipment and so forth.
Freer: There are inherent start-up costs, infrastructure, master controls, satellite transponders and all of that, which utilize funds that could be used for other things. That’s something that every team has to weigh. We think we provide a very good, guaranteed source of revenue, exposure, awareness and growth.
Q: NEIL MULCAHY of Fox Sports said in early January, “A lot of advertisers are looking towards college sports as a way to spend their marketing dollars.” He said that about finding a new Sugar Bowl sponsor, after Nokia chose not to renew. Fox takes over broadcasting rights to four of the BCS games next season.
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| Freer Says College Sports
Is Core Focus Of FSN |
Freer: College sports is core to what we do because there’s nothing more local than major college sports. If you’re in Tennessee, or Alabama, or Pullman, Washington, there’s nothing more local than that school on those days they have games. We looked at it as being the only organization that can provide a broadcast network solution, a national and regional cable solution, and a hyper-local cable solution where we can create 45 different Division I preview shows and 45 different individual profile shows. And really get down to creating localized versions, whether it’s the BCS weekly shows or profiles of the BCS teams that will air in the month of December and then right up to the championship game. There’s nothing more passionate in the sports business today than top-tier college football and basketball.
Q: A year ago at this time, you said that VOD and wireless were areas FSN wanted to enter. You said, “It doesn’t limit you to a 24-hour-a-day schedule and it allows you to create [for the fans] a closer relationship to the team, ownership and the business side when fans are ready to watch it.” Where are you with that now?
Freer: We continue to expand our on-demand product. We did individual football preview shows for 45 schools and we also did individual basketball preview shows. We continue to work with cable operators and other distributors on the best model to get these products out there. We have worked through a variety of issues in the on-demand world with most of the leagues. Ours is an interesting triangle. On the local side, we need to work with the teams, but oftentimes the league controls the media rights, so we need to work with them as well.
Q: FSN has made a big investment in HD, increasing the coverage.
Freer: We more than doubled it this year. I think we will more than double it again next year. We hope to have deals with all of our distributors for the delivery of HD by the start of baseball season this year. Once that is in place, you’ll see us over the next 12 or 18 months put ourselves in a position where we are doing most of our games in HD.
Q: U.S. Sens FRANK LAUTENBERG and GEORGE ALLEN, in a Commerce Committee hearing in January, said family tier packages from cable and satellite providers are “doomed to fail because they don’t include popular sports channels, such as ESPN.” Will the development of family-friendly cable programming tiers have an effect on FSN?
Freer: I do not believe that they will. There’s still a lot to be worked out related to the family tiers and how they’re marketed and how they’re sold. I think that in certain sports the networks should be considered in those family tier packages. But we’ll continue to work with our distributors and our affiliate group on the best methods to deal with the ever-changing distribution landscape and the ever-changing minds of today’s lawmakers.
Q: What do you see in the future for televised sports?
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| FSN More Than Doubling
HD Content This Year |
Freer: If you look at the last ten years, a lot of the enhancements in production have come from the world of graphics and stats. I think you are going to see more things that visually enhance the telecast and bring people closer to the event. Look at things that have been done in the NFL, with the overhead camera. Now, it seems like you’re in the huddle or you’re behind the quarterback.
Q: Has FSN implemented any enhancements?
Freer: One of the things we’ve been successful with at FSN West is a show called “Rewind,” which is really a replay of the UCLA-USC football games. But it’s done all with ENG [electronic news gathering] cameras and it’s done at field level. Even as a replay, it brings you into the world of what it looks like on the field. And I think you’ll see more of that even during live events. I think also that you’ll see those types of visual enhancements are available off your traditional television screen, whether it’s on your computer or your cell phone or download.
Q: Sounds like it’s getting closer to videogames. Apparently it’s not enough to watch the game. The fans want to be in the game.
Freer: We spend a fair amount of time talking to viewers and consumers. They want access. They want to feel like they are part of the excitement, part of the telecast. They want the visuals. They want to be closer to what is going on in the mind of the quarterback or the point guard or whoever it might be.
