My Network TV "FOX 2"

[Beeper3000]

NEW YORK – February 22, 2006 - FOX will launch My Network TV, a new primetime program network scheduled to debut this fall. Fox Television Stations, Inc., and Twentieth Television will operate the new venture. The announcement was made today at a press conference in New York by Peter Chernin, President and Chief Operating Officer, News Corporation; Roger Ailes, Chairman of Fox Television Stations; and Jack Abernethy, CEO of Fox Television Stations.

Upon launching on Tuesday, September 5th, 2006, My Network TV will feature quality primetime programming from 8:00-10:00pm (EST/PST) Monday through Saturday, totaling 12 hours of original content per week. Providing broadcasters a viable and station-friendly option for primetime, involving no reverse compensation, My Network TV will position stations with operational flexibility through an appealing affiliation term and attractive inventory split, further building asset value.

Fox Television Stations’ WWOR/New York, KCOP/Los Angeles, WPWR/Chicago, KDFI/Dallas, WDCA/Washington, D.C., KTXH/Houston, WFTC/Minneapolis, KUTP/Phoenix, WRBW/ Orlando and WUTB/Baltimore will serve as anchor affiliates of My Network TV, representing 24% of the United States. Supported with powerful branding and marketing initiatives that tie-in locally, the service will maintain and strengthen affiliates’ community brand recognition with a complete look and feel of a national network that empowers localism.

Regarding the announcement, Mr. Chernin stated, “No other media company comes close to Fox when it comes to launching new networks and gauging audience appetites. Over the past 20 years, we’ve proved it time and again with FBC, FX, Fox News Channel and National Geographic Channel among many others. And with My Network TV, we think we’ve come up with a unique format that will resonate with today’s consumer and a model that can be profitable from day one.”

Mr. Ailes added, “Backed by the strongest media company in the world, My Network TV is a viable alternative brought to you by proven winners who know quality programming. Independent stations are in need of a solid option for primetime and we believe no other company is providing this service to the market.”

Commented Mr. Abernethy, “We’re thrilled to be launching My Network TV this fall. We consider this to be a station-friendly alternative that will deliver more local inventory to its affiliates, uphold each station’s localism and feature quality programming supported by strong branding and marketing. We are looking forward to signing additional affiliates in the coming weeks.”

Twentieth Television’s new hour-long scripted dramas “Desire” and “Secrets” will inaugurate My Network TV. Structured in a 65-episode story arc stripped Monday through Friday for 13 weeks, “Desire” and “Secrets” are based on the worldwide success of the telenovela format. “Desire” chronicles the destruction of a family and the bonds of brotherhood take center stage when two brothers on the run from the mafia find themselves in a heated battle of passion, betrayal, deceit and murder over the woman they both love. “Secrets” goes deep behind-the-scenes to focus on the glamorous, yet sometimes brutally ruthless fashion industry, in which greed, lust and blind ambition surround a violent corporate takeover of the business’ hottest company. Principal photography on the dramas will commence early March.

Twentieth Television is aggressively developing additional programs and proven formats spanning reality, drama, comedy, game, news, movies and talk for My Network TV as the network develops, while also exploring opportunities with its sister companies. The company is opening its doors to all other major Hollywood studios to negotiate future programming concepts. Programs currently in development include:

• “Catwalk” (Twentieth Television) -- The ultimate search for the next “It” supermodel begins by crossing the country to discover 30 of the hottest, hippest and freshest faces who will compete for the once in a lifetime opportunity to be catapulted into stardom.

• “Celebrity Love Island” [Granada (“Nanny 911”)] -- Six gorgeous celebrity and six non-celebrity singletons are thrown together in a fantasy island setting, where a star-studded search for love takes place.

• “On Scene” (Fox News) -- This crime investigative series will cover all angles, examine all of the evidence and trace every single clue of the most compelling crimes committed today.

• “America’s Brainiest” (working title) [Celador (“Who Wants to Be A Millionaire”)] -- This quiz show, based on the hit British program, will find the country’s smartest individuals and reveal them in an exciting format.

• In addition, Twentieth Television is in advanced negotiations with FremantleMedia North America (“American Idol”) on an international format.

The Fox Television Stations group, one of the nation’s largest owned-and-operated network broadcast groups, comprises 35 stations in 26 markets, covering nearly 45% of U.S. television homes. This includes five duopolies in the top 10 markets, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas and Washington D.C., as well as duopolies in Houston, Minneapolis, Phoenix and Orlando.

A leader in the U.S. program production and distribution arena, Twentieth Television is a unit of Fox Television Stations, Inc., which is headed by chairman Roger Ailes while CEO Jack Abernethy oversees day-to-day operations. Twentieth Television provides a wide array of first-run and off-network programming, as well as feature film packages, to the syndication and cable marketplaces. First-run programs distributed by Twentieth Television include “Geraldo at Large,” the news strip hosted by Geraldo Rivera, and the popular court shows “Divorce Court” and “Judge Alex,” the number one new first-run program of the 2005-06 season. In addition to “Desire” and “Secrets,” the company is set to launch the new court show “Cristina’s Court,” hosted by Cristina Perez, in Fall 2006. Twentieth Television also oversees the domestic sales of one of the most extensive libraries of off-net programming in the entertainment industry. Last fall, the company launched the groundbreaking drama “24,” starring Kiefer Sutherland, and The Peabody Award-winning sitcom “The Bernie Mac Show” in off-net syndication.

Fox Entertainment Group, a division of News Corporation, is principally engaged in the development, production and worldwide distribution of feature films and television programs, television broadcasting and cable network programming. The unit’s studios, production facilities and film and television library provide high-quality creative content, and broadcasting and cable networks provide extensive distribution platforms for the Company's programs

What do you think???

[innocentfreak]

Care to elaborate for those that don't know what you are talking about?

[Mike Farrington]

I'll tell you what's not a good idea. Introducing a question with absolutely no background information.

[MrsHalpert]

Couldn't they concentrate on better programming for FOX 1 and call it a day?

[dswallow]

If FOX stays true to form, they'll cancel it after the first week.

[marksman]

I think it is both genius and confusing.

Genius that they saw the opportunity to pick up the affiliates that are being dropped because of the WB/UPN merger,confusing because I am not sure who they are targetting it at...

The Telenova format or whatever they call it, does not seem appealing to me. It basically sounds like a daytime soap opera format. Perhaps that is their goal. The first plot line sounds interesting, I just am doubtful that I would watch 65 episodes in 13 weeks.

On top of that the Mavericks play on their affiliate listed for Dallas, and that is going to eat up a lot of nights during the tv season. Probably 50 plus of them. Just like UPN I am sure they will rerun the programs some other time.

Anyways, it is an interesting move to launch another OTA network. I don't think if you gave me a million guesses I would ever think any of the current networks would be doing that.

Too bad they did not announce Arrested Development for the Fall Schedule. :)

[TiVaholic]

Celebrity Love Island??! Celebrity Love Island?!?!?!

I think I'm going to vomit. Society has reached a new low.

[rhuntington3]

If UPN and WB had to merge, what makes them think that creating a new network to counter the CW is good idea? Why didn't they create two back when to counter UPN and WB? Why not just have more faith in their current programming on FOX. Sheesh! Bad move IMHO.

[doom1701]

Burn in hell The Other Fox!

:D

[appleye1]

From what I heard on a news report the whole idea is to create a mini-network flexible enough and cheap enough for the smaller independent stations to sign onto. That's probably not a bad idea and sounds like it's definitely a competitive move in response to CW.

[weymo]

Ridiculous. So they will basically give away this content to anyone who'll sign in order to grab stations who feel the CW is too expensive? The WB/UPN market had the low-fi, urban market sewn up...so my prediction is that the programming will quickly become a blend of latin and urban teledramas in the telenovel format and will not have the broader appeal that the CW was aiming for.
Notice that mr. NewsCorp's main thought was that it would be profitable from day one. How is that if they charge nothing for the content from the stations? Is the assumption that national ads will pay for everything...local affiliates won't do ad insertion?
Somebody explain to me why this sounds like another rotten to the core idea from the geniuses at Fox?

[marksman]

If UPN and WB had to merge, what makes them think that creating a new network to counter the CW is good idea? Why didn't they create two back when to counter UPN and WB? Why not just have more faith in their current programming on FOX. Sheesh! Bad move IMHO.

Because there are not an unlimited number of viable affiliates. A fact that was a big problem for WB and UPN as they often ended up on crappy stations and/or crappy signals. I know here in Dallas CW is moving to what was the WB affiliate and that left Channel 21/KDFI open. Of those two affiliates, 21 is the stronger station in my opinion. So right off they are getting a stronger affiliate in a top 5 market than CW. I don't know about the other cities mentioned but I imagine there are some similar examples there too.


This opened the door to some decent affiliates having no network programing, so it made sense to step in there. I also think they can leverage it. CBS has owned UPN for a long time. They never promoted UPN at all with their CBS properties. You can be guaranteed that Fox2 will be promoted heavily on all the fox networks.

I wouldn't be suprised if Fox2 outperformed CW in the markets they compete in. From what it seems, though, they will have far from national coverage for a long time.

I am interested to see this play out. I think it has potentially huge upside for Fox, and the only real downside is the capitalization of the network.

[sonnik]

In the case of Phoenix, it's unlikely that KUTP (Fox owned and operated) would be successful without a decent prime-time package. Looks like 61 KASW (Belo Owned and Operated) is going to carry CW.

Channel 3 (KTVK, also Belo Owned and operated) is about as successful as you can get for a local independent in this market. There's also a pretty decent independent from Prescott (KAZT) that has a repeater in Phoenix. In addition, there's crappy KPPX (Paxson).

If KUTP didn't have some sort of prime-time network backing, it wouldn't likely be able to compete. Anyone who lives in a market with that many english speaking independents know how diluted they can become without programming.

[ILoveCats&Tivo]

If FOX stays true to form, they'll cancel it after the first week.


Good one! :D

[DevdogAZ]

I don't understand what market they're trying to capture with a show that is going to run every night? Who is going to make the time to keep up with that kind of show? Soaps work during the day because people who don't work during the day have more free time and there's really nothing else on (except judge shows, talk shows, syndicated sitcom reruns, and other soaps). I don't see how you get any viewership for this type of program in primetime. Unless the stories are so lame and repetitive that you can miss several episodes and still know what's going on, they're going to lose their entire audience after a week or two when people realize they can't keep up with the demands of a nightly show. If the plots are so uncomplicated that tuning in once a week is all that is required to keep up (ala daytime soaps) they might get some viewers, but they definitely won't get any critical buzz which seems to be nearly required for a show to succeed anymore.

[sieglinde]

I actually voted that it was a good idea because right now without UPN one of the channels I watch would have nothing on it. It might as well broadcast the color bars.

[Inundated]

The problem is simple:

FOX's second stations, the ones carrying UPN until September, are worth a lot more money with a network than they are without. Ditto with the other WB/UPN affiliates that will be shut out of the "CW" race.

It's only two hours a night, but it's a vital, crucial two hours - the period where most people watch TV.

This "My Network TV" sounds kinda lame, I'd agree...but they had to do something. Programming the time separately was not an option...for it gives the station no identity and no "cachet". Even at the WB/UPN level, a network affiliation does that, and it's literally worth millions of dollars. Just ask Sinclair, which saw its stock price plummet the day of the "CW" announcement because they'd be losing a few UPN/WB affiliates.

[JYoung]

It's an interesting idea. I thought that they might do something like this and had hoped that they would showcase shows like The Shield and Arrested Development.
Shows that might not make it on the Fox1 network but could stand to do well on Fox2.
(Unlikely, I know but one can hope)

However, the shows they seem to be programming for it sound lame.