With a strong performance across a number of dayparts, Fox Sports Net enjoyed
the greatest ratings growth in its five-year history, scoring double-digit gains
in total-day audience and household impressions in 2001.
FSN, comprising 21 regional sports networks, registered a 10 percent increase
in average audience on a total-day basis last year, leading to a 15 percent in
average household impressions to 252,000 in 2001 from 219,000 in 2000, according
to an analysis of Nielsen Media Research data supplied by FSN.
Carrying 70 of the 80 U.S.-based teams in Major League Baseball, the National
Hockey League and the National Basketball Association, FSN recorded double-digit
gains last year with all three pro circuits for the first time.
MLB was up 10 percent during the 2001 season, while FSN regionals marked an
11 percent advance with the NBA and a 23 percent surge with the NHL during their
respective 2001-02 campaigns (through Dec. 31, 2001).
As for national programming, FSN's weekday-afternoon block -- including
BlueTorch, You Gotta See This, Totally NASCAR, The Last
Word with Jim Rome and Regional Sports Report -- recorded a 25
percent advance, according to the network.
Elsewhere, The Best Damn Sports Show Period, launched in July, helped
FSN to a 20 percent growth with late-night audiences.
The show, which will succeed National Sports Report next month, has
also improved FSN's primetime performance since it was moved into that daypart
in September and expanded to a two-hour format in December, according to the
network.
