Description
Fox Sports, stylized in all caps, is the sports programming division of the Fox Corporation that is responsible for sports broadcasts carried by the Fox broadcast network, Fox Sports 1 (FS1), Fox Sports 2 (FS2), and the Fox Sports Radio network.
The division was formed in 1994 with Fox's acquisition of broadcast rights to National Football League (NFL) games. In subsequent years, Fox has televised the National Hockey League (NHL) (1994–1999), Major League Baseball (MLB) (1996–present), NASCAR (2001–present), the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) (2007–2010), Major League Soccer (MLS) (2003–2011, 2015–present), the U.S. Open golf tournament (2015–2019), the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) (2016–present), WWE programming (2019–2024), the XFL (2020), the United States Football League (USFL) (2022–2023), the United Football League (UFL) (2024-present) and the World Baseball Classic (WBC) (2023–present).
On December 14, 2017, The Walt Disney Company announced plans to acquire then-parent company 21st Century Fox for $52.4 billion, which included key assets such as the regional Fox Sports Networks (which were later sold by Disney to the Sinclair Broadcast Group), FX Networks, and Fox Sports International. Under the terms of the proposed acquisition, Fox Sports 1, Fox Sports 2, and other assets were spun off into the division's current parent company, which is independently owned by Fox Corporation.