Watch out ESPN.
Fox is set to unveil a national cable sports network during a press conference on Tuesday, according to Richard Sandomir and Amy Chozick of The New York Times. Dubbed Fox Sports 1, the network will reportedly begin broadcasting in August 2013 and feature MLB, college football, NASCAR, soccer and UFC.
In January, Sports Business Journal reported that the Speed Channel would be rebranded as Fox Sports 1 and that the new flagship sports network would be joined by Fox Sports 2, itself rebranded from Fuel. Speed is already available in 81 million homes, according to SBJ, with Fuel checking in north of 37 million.
"It is not clear what the impact will be on Speed’s modern production hub at Harris Boulevard and Interstate 85, but it will probably grow," wrote Mark Washburn of The Charlotte Observer last week. "A broader variety of programming should result in more production from the center."
Highlighting the programming of the new networks will be a sports talk panel show hosted by Regis Philbin, as first reported by the New York Post.
"Fox is starting a sports channel. Everybody is starting a sports channel now, you know, nothing but 24 hours of sports," Philbin said during an appearance on 'The View' on Monday, according to HuffPost Media. "So Regis is going to have a show on that."
CBS and NBC have joined the 24-hour sports cable fray in recent years, but ESPN continues to tower about the competition. Can Rupert Murdoch and Fox change that?
Fox Sports 1 is also expected to formally announce a deal with the "Catholic 7" basketball schools. According to USA Today Sports, the "Catholic 7" will bring the "Big East" name with them when they land on Fox next season. ESPN had previously been the home of Big East basketball.