Irony Can Be Pretty Ironic Sometimes

The much-discussed Internet Culture episode of Sports Talk Live featured a pretty sharp comment from Mike Bianchi (I know, I was as stunned as anyone) regarding the future of internet sports coverage. He opined that more and more "fan" sites would be swallowed up by larger media companies in the coming years, as those Big Box outlets realized the power of local coverage and internet communities.

Hear it on Sports Talk Live, see it happen the next day.

Later that same week, it was announced that Fox Media Interactive (FMI) had acquired Scout.com, the sports content provider with over 200 local, team-focused websites and 47 publications (through Scout Publishing). Jim Heckman, the 39-year-old founder of Scout.com, had this to say in a release, in between doing back flips and rocketing champagne corks across his Seattle office:

"Fox is a dream partner for our network of team sites and publications because of its dominance in team broadcast rights. When you consider Fox's massive online reach, proprietary video infrastructure and the power of the worldwide brand, I couldn't imagine a better combined product for sports fans. I think it will immediately revolutionize the online sports industry."

Translation: Fox, through the Fox Sports Net (FSN) regional cable networks (which include both FSN Florida and Sun Sports), already holds the local broadcast rights to 62 of the 82 U.S.-based teams in the NBA, NHL, and MLB. Put that access together with the 200 Scout.com sites - which include Gatorcountry.com and RenegadeReport.com - and well, that's a mountain of content, in both directions. And we haven't even touched all the college sports covered by the FSN regionals - like the Chevy Tailgate Saturday block of pregame, postgame, and highlight shows on Sun Sports, not to mention the "Breakfast with the Gators" and "Prime Time Noles" replays during football season. I've already heard from Ray Hines at Gatorcountry and Dave Peters at Renegade Report, and we all agree that this is good news.

Picture a RenegadeReport.com writer filing a story for "Chevy Tailgate Saturday" after practice in Tallahassee. Picture the spies from Gatorcountry.com coming on "Sports Talk Live" with updates from a prized recruit's living room. Picture streaming video of Sun Sports' live postgame shows showing up on both sites. Picture Sun Sports talent as columnists for Scout.com sites (which, in the case of Brady Ackerman and Gatorcountry, is already happening).

All of that is conjecture at this point, but it's all possible. Nothing is out of bounds. Damn, Mike, you hit it on the head.

Backstory: as many of you may remember, Fox attempted to compete with ESPN head to head a few years ago with the "National Sports Report," a studio show that aired on various FSN regionals. While the show was well-produced, the regionalization of the FSN brand proved to be a stiff challenge when up against ESPN, which can show the same shows at the same time to virtually every cable household in America. The FSN's, with their heavy schedule of NBA, NHL, and MLB games each night, had no way of uniformly scheduling the National Sports Report from week to week. And thus, the National Sports Report faded away, leaving us woefully short of our daily dose of Van Earl Wright.

God, I loved him back in the CNN Headline News days. Did you know he went to high school with my cousin in Atlanta? Did I just say any of that out loud?

Anyway, once it was apparent that Fox could not beat ESPN in the national sports studio show game, the minds in Los Angeles did a very smart thing - began to even MORE aggressively pursue local TV contracts with non-NFL pro teams. As I wrote above, 62 of the 82 U.S.-based teams in the NBA, hockey, and baseball are now seen on FSN regional networks. In the case of FSN Florida and Sun Sports, that includes the Panthers, Lightning, Magic, Heat, Marlins, and Devil Rays - every non-NFL pro team in the state of Florida.

As it turns out, ESPN's biggest strength - its overriding national reach - was also a weakness. As Fox likes to say, "All sports are local." ESPN may carry Major League Baseball three or four nights a week in season, but if you're in Pittsburgh, you might care less about an Angels-Yankees matchup on a Tuesday night. On the other hand, under another new deal announced this week, you Pittsburgians can now watch the Pirates for at least 120 nights a season on FSN Pittsburgh - the same way that South Florida sees the Marlins on FSN Florida. Plus, why sit through fourteen minutes of "SportsCenter" on why Joe Torre scratched his nose this morning when you can get in-depth coverage of the teams you care about on your local Fox regional?

Fox turned the regionals into its greatest sports asset by keeping it local. Turn a perceived weakness into a strength. Do what you do best, and attack the OTHER guy's weak spot. That's smart business. And it has been, for several years now.

As an aside, while I was working at ESPN, the minds in Bristol seriously considered starting their own set of regional networks to compete with the FSN's on the very same playing field. ESPN went so far as to create an "ESPN West," which was theoretically going to regionalize games in Southern California - remember, this was back when Disney owned both ESPN and the Angels. For the record, Disney still owns ESPN, but the Angels have been sold, and their games are currently seen on - wait for it - FSN West. So you can guess how the ESPN plan turned out. ESPN Regional does produce college football and basketball games for specific areas, but they don't have any 24-hour, distinct regional channels.

Anyway, with Fox so strong in regional television, and Scout so strong in regional internet, this marriage makes perfect sense. You get coverage of the teams you care about, on a daily (and sometimes minute-by-minute) basis, with the mighty resources of Fox and Scout combined. Jim Heckman says it will revolutionize the online sports industry. I'm not arguing with him.

What does it mean for us? Truth be told, we don't know yet. Stay tuned. What I do know is this - everyone in the Sun Sports/FSN Florida offices is pretty geeked about it, and I know that Ray (Gatorcountry) and Dave (RenegadeReport) are dreaming up new initiatives as we speak. Who wins in this deal? You do. More is more, especially during football season.

And it looks like Mikey was on to something.