FOX network

Identification American broadcast television network

Date Debuted in 1986

FOX network was the first successful new broadcast television network in decades. Its success demonstrated that ABC, CBS, and NBC, the Big Three networks, no longer monopolized American television audiences.

Australian billionaire Rupert Murdoch owned international media conglomerate News Corporation. In 1985, with expansion in mind, Murdoch completed the purchase of Twentieth Century-Fox Studios, acquiring its large film library and television studio. Later that year, he purchased six independent major market television stations in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Dallas-Fort Worth, and Houston, pending the approval of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

Regulation and the State of the Industry

Federal regulations under the FCC placed a cap on the number of major-market television stations a single company could own, and a separate set of regulations restricted a broadcaster’s ownership of programming. However, the administration of President Ronald Reagan was opposed to government regulation of business in general, and under Reagan, the FCC was instructed to restrict commerce as little as possible. In 1986, the FCC approved Murdoch’s television acquisitions and loosened the regulations regarding programming ownership for News Corporation. Murdoch overcame a third restriction against foreign ownership of US media by becoming a citizen of the United States.

Murdoch and News Corporation intended to start a fourth broadcast network to challenge the three that had dominated US broadcasting for thirty years. By the mid-1980s, the traditional broadcast networks—the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), and American Broadcasting Company (ABC)—had become vulnerable to such a challenge. Their viewers had recently acquired several viewing alternatives, including basic cable television, premium services such as pay TV, and prerecorded material played on Videocassette recorders (VCRs) and other such devices. As a result, Americans’ network loyalties and viewing habits were in a state of flux.

The communications industry was also in flux. In 1986, Cap Cities Communications acquired ABC. General Electric acquired Radio Corporation of America (RCA), the parent company of NBC. By fall of 1986, the Loews Corporation assumed control of CBS. While the ownership of the older broadcast networks changed, their attitudes about a potential fourth network did not. They were dismissive of Murdoch’s plans for a FOX network. The initial FOX network affiliates were weaker, ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) stations. They reached a mere 22 percent of households with televisions. Moreover, previous attempts at creating a fourth broadcast network had failed. The old networks did not accurately assess the changing television marketplace.

Founding a New Network

When Murdoch bought Twentieth Century-Fox Studios, Barry Diller was its head. Diller shared Murdoch’s commitment to creating a viable fourth broadcast network, and, with his vast television experience, he was the ideal executive to build FOX.

Diller put together a team of young executives, some poached from rival networks. They were eager to build a new network, and they set about two central tasks in that regard. The first task was to expand the network’s reach by adding affiliate stations. By the time FOX went on the air in 1986, almost ninety affiliates had been added to the network. The second task was to design a programming strategy that would attract viewers and cultivate an audience. The fledgling network’s research indicated that television consumers were frustrated with stodgy, familiar programming. FOX therefore developed a strategy to produce innovative and edgy shows that would appeal to a young audience that was no longer watching broadcast network television. FOX initially chose a name—the Fox Broadcasting Company, or FBC—in keeping with the three-letter acronyms of the older networks.

In 1986, the FOX network made its first foray into original programming with a late-night talk show hosted by Joan Rivers. Rivers was a well-known comedian as the permanent guest host for Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show. The Late Show with Joan Rivers aired in September of 1986. Despite initial interest, audiences soon migrated back to The Tonight Show. Rivers was fired in May 1987 and two subsequent hosts took over until October 1988 when the show was cancelled.

In 1987, FOX aired its first original prime-time programming, beginning with weekend shows. The network planned to add one night of new programming with each new season, keeping the total number of nights below the number beyond which FOX would officially be designated as a regulated network by the FCC. The low number of hours per week of programming would also help the network minimize costs for producers, writers, and directors.

The initial Sunday night schedule included Married . . . with Children, a vulgar family comedy, and The Tracey Ullman Show, a variety show starring British comedian Tracey Ullman. Cartoonist Matt Groening produced an animated segment for The Tracey Ullman Show called The Simpsons. FOX also aired It’s the Garry Shandling Show, an irreverent comedy in which a self-mocking Garry Shandling played the host of a long-running late-night talk show. Veteran producer Stephen J. Cannell provided 21 Jump Street, a police youth drama that focused on young officers who went undercover in high schools.

In the next two years, FOX added America’s Most Wanted and COPS, early entries in a new format that became known as reality programming. America’s Most Wanted profiled criminals then at large and encouraged the audience to identify the criminals and help bring them to justice. Successful identifications led to arrests that were filmed and broadcast on subsequent episodes. America’s Most Wanted was the first FOX show to break into the Nielsen ratings' top fifty television shows. FOX also produced A Current Affair, a syndicated news show that featured tabloid-style journalism.

In 1989, Fox spun off the animated segment The Simpsons as a half-hour series, . The show was a genuine hit and became the anchor for the network’s Sunday night schedule. FOX eventually achieved mainstreams success in the 1990s. The network premiered a variety of programs, such as X-Files, Melrose Place, Beverly Hills, 90210, Ally McBeal, and In Living Color. The network also added blocks of children's programming and also started FOX Sports. In 1996 Fox News Channel was launched and grew in popularity with shows such as The O'Reilly Factor and Hannity and Colmes (later just Hannity). The network became known for its conservative bias and has .

FOX has also produced additional hits such as the long-running Family Guy cartoon, The OC, Glee, and the reality music competition, American Idol. An additional FOX channel, Fox Reality Channel, was started in 2005, but was taken off the air five years later. FOX also has on-demand services and broadcasts in a number of countries internationally.

Impact

The FOX network demonstrated that media corporations beyond the Big Three networks could own multiple stations and maintain ownership of content. Following FOX’s success, Time Warner would create the WB network, and Paramount would create UPN. Along with MTV, FOX pioneered the reality show, which would become a significant genre for most broadcast and cable channels. FOX also became an innovator in targeting young audiences, at a time when the advent of cable television and narrowcasting were making such targeted programming more important than it had been in previous decades. As a result, FOX was able to attract significant advertising dollars, despite its smaller broadcast footprint. However, the type of programming FOX used to reach younger audiences caused some critics to complain that it was coarsening American culture in the name of ratings. Nevertheless, the other networks were forced to rethink their relationship to the youth audience in order to compete with FOX.

Bibliography

Auletta, Ken. Three Blind Mice: How the TV Networks Lost Their Way. New York: Random House, 1991. Print.

Baker, William F., and George Dessart. Down the Tube: An Inside Account of the Failure of American Television. New York: Basic Books, 1998. Print.

Hack, Richard. Clash of the Titans: How the Unbridled Ambition of Ted Turner and Rupert Murdoch Has Created Global Empires That Control What We Read and Watch. Beverly Hills: New Millenium, 2003. Print.

Kimmel, Daniel M. The Fourth Network: How Fox Broke the Rules and Reinvented Television. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2004. Print.