Fox Sports Asia (formerly ESPN Star Sports) was a pan-Asian pay television network broadcasting in Asia, operated by Fox Networks Group Asia Pacific, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company (Southeast Asia) Pte. Ltd. It also oversaw a version of Star Sports available in Mainland China and South Korea.
Originally launched in early 1990s as Star Sports (earlier Prime Sports) and ESPN by Satellite Television Asian Region (STAR TV) and ESPN International respectively, both parties agreed to combine their operations in Asia in October 1996. News Corporation took the full control of the venture in 2012, and relaunched the channels in two phases in January 2013 and August 2014, respectively.
ESPN opened its production facility at New Tech Park in Lorong Chuan, Singapore in May 1995.[3]
Operations combined as ESPN Star Sports
Logo of ESPN & Star Sports (2009-2013)
ESPN and Star Sports were competing with each other across Asia,[4] but their businesses were making loss. In October 1996, both channels agreed to combine their operations in the region.[5] The resulting joint venture, later named ESPN Star Sports, was to be headquartered in Singapore (where ESPN's operations in Asia had been based).[6]
In October 2012, Fox Football Channel was launched in Malaysia.[13] The channel ceased transmission in 2015.
On 28 January 2013, ESPN and ESPN HD was relaunched as Fox Sports and Fox Sports Plus HD in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Southeast Asia.[14][15] The regional version of ESPNews was relaunched as Fox Sports News, and SportsCenter Asia was relaunched as Fox Sports Central.
On 15 August 2014, Star Sports was rebranded as Fox Sports 2, and Fox Sports Plus HD was renamed Fox Sports 3 (or Fox Sports HD in Vietnam). The corresponding HD and SD versions of all three channels were also launched.[16][17]
ESPN International has since refocused on its digital business building out online properties for football (ESPNFC), cricket (CricInfo), Formula 1 (ESPNF1), and Australian rugby union (ESPNscrum),[18] and established partnership with Multi Screen Media in India (Sony ESPN TV channel until 31 March 2020), TV5 Network in the Philippines (ESPN5 programming division until 13 October 2021), Tencent in Mainland China (a dedicated ESPN section at qq.com), and Mediacorp in Singapore (local ad sales only for the ESPN website through its Partner Network division).
On 31 March 2020, the website of Fox Sports Asia merged into and redirected to global version of ESPN website, remained unaffected for Fox Sports Asia socials.[19]
On March 8, 2021, Fox Sports partnered with Emtek's OTT media serviceVidio to make the networks available for Indonesian viewers.[20]
Closure
On September 18, 2020, Disney announced that it would shut down Fox Sports operations in Taiwan at end of 2020.[21] It was later revealed that operations in Taiwan would end on January 1, 2021, following years on losing money in the region.[22]
Prior to the shutdown, Korean sports network SPOTV brought the licensee to cover up the remaining 2021 MotoGP World Championship,[23] taking over the Fox Sports network once their transmission goes offline, resuming the remaining MotoGP races.[24] They also carried Superbike World Championship as well.[25] Vietnam in the meantime has no TV broadcasters for MotoGP, until SPOTV officially launched in December 24, 2023.[26]
The remaining coverage of both Formula One and UFC was aired on Malaysia Astro for Astro SuperSport 5, which has been launched post-closure;[29] Philippines Premier Sports from the TAP Sports network, which also replaced Fox Sports post-closure;[30] Singapore StarHub TV and Singtel TV, for Hub Sports & Mio Sports respectively[31] and even Thailand TrueVisions' True Sport.[32]Mola streamed the remaining UFC fights in Indonesia while also carrying the sub-license to both Singapore & Malaysia for future Live fights with the inclusion of Dana White's Contender Series that hadn't been aired when Fox Sports mainly aired the UFC main events,[33] meanwhile the Emtek group aired the remaining Formula One races for their Champions TV network along with their OTT media serviceVidio which previously carried the Fox Sports network to the service.[34][35]
As reported exclusively from SportBusiness, the Formula One coverage in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia (excluding Vietnam, in which K+ owned the rights following the closure of the channel) has been transferred over to beIN Sports starting from 2023,[36] which also carried both Australian Open and French Open tennis rights (except in Vietnam, which was owned by K+ and VTVcab respectively),[37][38] awhile SPOTV, which already available across Southeast Asia (excluding Vietnam until December 24, 2023[26]), will broadcast Wimbledon and the US Open. Awhile the extension for UFC coverage in Southeast Asia was yet to be finalized.
The John Dykes Show was announced to be resumed on Disney+ Hotstar in Malaysia, Indonesia & Thailand, then yet-to-be announced for other Disney+ territories including Singapore and Hong Kong as StarOriginals.[39]
A few days after its closure, Disney relaunched the ESPN brand in Asia but as a digital media portal through its official YouTube channel and social media pages.
Channels
"Fox Football Channel" redirects here. For the Aussie rules channels in Australia, see Fox Footy and Fox Footy Channel. For the association football channels in the United States, see Fox Soccer and Fox Soccer Plus.
Fox Sports 2 (formerly Prime Sports and Star Sports)
Fox Sports 3 (formerly ESPN HD and Fox Sports Plus HD)
Fox Sports News (formerly ESPNews): The channel was first launched as ESPNews in November 2009 in Singapore on Singtel's Mio TV,[40] and later expanded to other areas, including Hong Kong, where it was launched in August 2011 on PCCW's Now TV.[41] The channel was renamed as Fox Sports News on 28 January 2013. The channel was gradually discontinued in 2017: It ceased broadcasting on 1 April 2017 in most areas, but continued until 24 April in Hong Kong, 3 May in Malaysia, and 31 May in Taiwan.
Fox Football Channel: The channel was launched in October 2012 in Malaysia.[13] Its programming was mainly consisted of association football matches and shows. It ceased broadcasting in 2015.
Regions
The individual regional variations of Fox Sports channels include:
Hong Kong: Additionally, a schedule variant is offered to Hong Kong Cable Television customers due to broadcasting rights issues. This variant which was transmitted by Fox Networks Group Hong Kong and produced from the studios in Hong Kong. The headquarter closed on October 1, 2021.
Indonesia: This variant which was transmitted by Fox Networks Group Indonesia and produced from the studios in Indonesia. The headquarter closed on November 12, 2021.
Malaysia and Brunei: This variant does not provide coverage of field hockey events. This variant which was transmitted by Fox Networks Group Malaysia and produced from the studios in Malaysia. The headquarter closed on November 12, 2021.
Philippines: This variant which was transmitted by Fox Networks Group Philippines and produced from the studios in Philippines. The headquarter closed on October 1, 2021.
Singapore: This variant which was transmitted by Fox Networks Group Singapore and produced from the studios in Singapore. The headquarter closed on November 12, 2021.
Vietnam: This variant which was transmitted by Fox Networks Group Vietnam and produced from the studios in Vietnam. The headquarter closed on October 1, 2021, in Hanoi and November 12, 2021, in Hồ Chí Minh City.
Taiwan: This variant which was transmitted by Fox Networks Group Taiwan and produced from the studios in Taipei. The headquarter closed on January 1, 2024.
In South Korea, Fox Sports was partnered with JTBC until 11 March 2020, which operated JTBC3 Fox Sports (now known as JTBC Golf&Sports). As ESPN Star Sports, it has previously partnered with MBC (MBC ESPN (now known as MBC Sports+)) from 2001 until July 2010, and SBS (SBS ESPN (now known as SBS Sports)) from Late 2010 until 2014.
Final programming
Broadcast rights for various sports properties contain territorial limitations and in a lot of instances, the rights indicated below may not pertain to all Asian territories in which Fox Sports operated.
^Frater, Patrick (3 October 2022). "Formula One Shifts Gears in Asia-Pacific – Global Bulletin". Variety. Retrieved 1 November 2022. Sports Business reports that pay-TV broadcaster beIN Sports is finalizing a multi-year deal beginning in 2023 reaching across most of its Asia-Pacific footprint, but excluding Australia, where Foxtel recently renewed its deal, and New Zealand.
