Fox, GloboSat team for Brazil sportsnet
Fox Sports, as the net will be known, will launch in the second quarter of this year. In the direct-to-home (DTH) arena, it will be exclusive to Brazil's Sky Net Entertainment platform.
GloboSat is the pay TV programming arm of media giant Globo, which also is lead partner in Sky Net Entertainment. The Brazilian DTH platform --- part of Pan-Latino satcaster Sky Entertainment Services --- includes News Corp. and TCI Intl. as minority partners.
A Portuguese-lingo service, Fox Sports will offer a mix of local and international programming, and will develop a slate complementary to SporTv, GloboSat's existing sports web.
The announcement marks another move by GloboSat to develop exclusive product for Sky, which is battling for DTH subscribers with Hughes-backed Galaxy Latin America. In recent months, GloboSat has launched a newsnet and a rural-interest service.
The news also marks the latest in a series of Latino cable moves by News Corp., which entered the arena with Canal Fox in 1993. Last November saw the bow of Fox Kids and the relaunch of existing Spanish-lingo net Prime Deportiva as Fox Sports Americas, and a newsnet is said to be in the pipeline.
In Fox Sports Intl., which operates both Fox-branded Latino sports webs, News Corp. is partnered with Liberty Media Corp. and TCI Intl.
