foxsports.com

As one of the most influential television networks of all time, Fox has had a profound impact on the entertainment landscape. With a nearly endless roster of shows under their belt - some of which, like Family Guy; The Simpsons; and The Masked Singer (just to name a few) have become cultural phenomena - and a sense of longevity in TV that is not often rivaled by competitor networks, it is hard to overstate the importance that Fox has had on the entertainment industry. Despite its name, Fox News has been met with heavy criticism from many sectors of the media in recent years. This is largely because their news programs tend to take a conservative slant, with pundits such as Fox and Friends serving as a platform for presenting theirpoint of view. In addition, the network has become closely associated with the Trump administration and Republican Party, due to the frequent appearances of prominent figures such as President Trump and Ann Coulter on Fox News programming.

Regardless of political stance, one cannot simply reduce Fox News to its news broadcasts. Fox News is much broader than just news and politics. They also have their fingers in the creation of films (now 21st Century Fox), great TV shows (as I mentioned before), and sports - the great unifier.

Despite technically being a news outlet, Fox Sports does not have a lot of political bias when reporting on sports entertainment. Of course, there are times when politics will bleed into sports (kneeling for the national anthem, etc.), but as a whole, one's political affiliation has little to no bearing on one's ability to report on what team won a matchup.

Sports is one of the few things in journalism that can almost be considered objective. A team either wins or loses, with no room for opinion. So, even if you are a left-winger and a sports fan, you might be surprised to find that you can enjoy Fox Sports just as much as a full-fledged member of the GOP. If you were to ignore Fox Sports, you would be missing out on the majority of major NFL, NBA, NASCAR, and WWE broadcasts - as many air exclusively on Fox Sports channels.

History

Fox Sports refers to a network of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and commentary all around the world which are fully (or at least partially) owned by Rupert Murdoch's estate. The majority of the Fox Sports networks are owned and maintained solely by the Fox Corporation, with a few exceptions: Australian operations are overseen by News Corp Australia, and the remaining international Fox Sports entities are owned by the Walt Disney Corporation. In addition to these, regional operations and Fox College Sports are managed by the Diamond Sports Group - a joint venture between Sinclair Broadcast Group and Entertainment Studios. Disney sold the rights to these to this pair on August 23rd, 2019. Disney announced on December 14th, 2017 that it had reached an agreement to purchase 21st Century Fox for $52.4 billion. This included the acquisition of many key Fox assets, such as the film studio and its associated networks, FX Networks, National Geographic, and its regional sports networks. The remaining Fox networks - Fox News Channel and the non-regional Fox sports networks (FS1 and FS2) - were retained as separate operations run by the Murdoch family. This acquisition was seen as a major victory for Disney as it brought many of their key properties under one roof.

Design

The neutral design of the Fox Sports website is what I enjoy most about it. It doesn't get in its own way, leaving plenty of room for the sports reporting to shine. A lot of sports websites can get a little full of themselves, in my opinion, offering a little too much in the way of a sort of really bold, masculine, or edgy design. Fox Sports, on the other hand, does not delude itself about what it is: a news site that happens to cater exclusively to sports journalism. As a general rule, I like my news sources to be minimalist in nature. And that's precisely what Fox Sports has done with this website. When I visit a news site, I want to get straight to the information - no frills, nothing fancy, just sports news. Furthermore, I want those news stories to be well organized and easily accessible. And Fox Sports is just that. Everything is easy to find, the main stories of the day are prominently featured, and there is a solid blend of text, video, and images.

One of my favorite design aspects of Fox Sports is its site menu bar, which is always present at the top of the page, no matter what you click into on the website. Here, Fox Sports allows you to browse by the league, and so you can find what you're looking for easily. For a specific sport, just click on any one of the following to narrow down this massive site: NFL, MLB. NCAA Football, NASCAR, Boxing, Soccer, NBA, or NCAA Basketball. Plus each league comes with a comprehensive and useful dropdown menu for further specification (browse by team, stats, players, etc.). I haven't been to a sports news website that is as well organized as this one; I give Fox Sports its kudos on that.

Content

We have already begun discussing all that Fox Sports has to offer, in terms of specific sports and league coverage. Within each sport that Fox lets you choose from, you can track your favorite teams, players, divisions, scores, playoffs rankings, news, etc. Basically, if there is something relevant about any sport or any team within a given sport, Fox Sports has coverage on it. This is easily one of the most dependable and frequently updated sports news sites on the internet. But that's not all that Fox Sports has to offer. In addition to breaking sports news, you have the option to watch original Fox Sports programming, either live or streamed after the fact. Please note that watching live Fox Sports broadcasts (and some of the prerecorded ones) will require you to log in with a cable provider account. That being said, there is some free to stream prerecorded content to enjoy even if you don't have cable. Oh, and if you register as a Fox Sports user, you can customize your experience by tracking all of your favorite teams.

Mobile and Desktop Experience

I have already outlined some of the reasons why I love Fox Sports? desktop experience. However, how does this site fare when accessed through a smartphone or tablet? Well, the site is actually just as well-designed and optimized for smartphone browser access, which is a breath of fresh air. That being said, though, there is no real reason to access Fox Sports through Safari or the Chrome app when Fox Sports has its own app. In fact, you can access Fox Sports content across 3 different apps. You can choose between Fox Sports, Fox Sports Go, and Fox Now (subscription methods and rates vary). It is always nice when a site offers several different choices for mobile experiences. That being said, I think that the original basic Fox Sports app could be improved a bit. It is a little clunky to navigate and not quite as seamless as the desktop site. Which explains the app's relatively low average user rating on the Apple App Store of 3.9 stars (out of 5).

Pricing and Plans

To watch Fox Sports live, you will need a cable provider. This is how you watch Fox Sports after they have aired, and this is the only way to do so. This is also the only way to watch full broadcasts. However, as I'm sure you already know, this is a huge hurdle for people to leap when they take into account the fact that an increasing number of people around the world are doing away with their traditional cable providers, "cutting the cord," as they say.

Suggestions that I have for Fox Sports

It would be nice to see a Fox-specific subscription option that allows users to watch full episodes after they air (live viewing would be better, of course). I do not want to have to sign up for a cable subscription in order to watch Fox Sports programs.