News Corp. is thinking about launching a sports channel to
challenge ESPN's hegemony, Bloomberg reports.  The grand plan:
Turn the fledgling Fuel channel into a more general nationwide
sports network, out-maneuver ESPN for the rights to major live
sporting events, and make oodles and oodles of money.  News
Corp. outbid Disney (read: ESPN) for the rights to the 2018 and
2022 World Cups. They have deals through Fox Sports with the
NFL, MLB, and a bunch of major college conferences.  News Corp.
also owns the UK sports network Sky Sports, so the
infrastructure for an all-sports channel is in place.  Even
though they are a long, long way from ESPN, their stable of
sports proprieties is way more impressive than NBC's when they
tried to create an "ESPN killer" by turning Versus into NBC
Sports in January.  The potential network is only in the
planning stages, and no final decision has been made.