Fox Sports International (stylized as FOX SPORTS) was the international unit of Fox Sports founded by Robert Murdoch that oversaw sports broadcasting outside of the United States, Canada Australia Mexico and Argentina by The Walt Disney Company.
It became a subsidiary of Disney following their acquisition of 21st Century Fox's film and television studios on March 20, 2019. Other networks included with the purchase were FX, FXX, a majority stake in National Geographic Partners, Star India, a stake in Hulu, and Fox Networks Group. Disney also briefly owned the US-based Fox Sports Networks division in 2019, but was forced to sell the unit as the US Justice Department ruled that Disney would have a monopoly in the sports broadcasting industry as they already own ESPN, which was deemed to become a violation of anti-trust laws had Disney continued to own Fox Sports Networks. Furthermore, FSN and ESPN were direct rivals, and therefore, Disney could not own two sports networks as US laws limit major film studios to only be affiliated with one sports and news network respectively.
In the United States, Fox Sports is still owned by Fox Corporation while Foxtel owns the rights to the Australian network instead of Disney; whereas elsewhere Disney owned the rights to the network in other territories.
Unlike 20th Century Fox, which dropped the Fox from the title and became 20th Century Studios to avoid brand confusion between Fox Corporation, the studios' previous owner, Fox Sports networks owned by Disney through Fox Networks Group outside of the United States, Canada Australia Mexico and Argentina retained the Fox trademark and didn't change its name for unknown reasons. However, it had to have changed by 2024, in-which as part of the terms and conditions that were made by Fox Corporation, for the acquisition, Disney had to phase out the Fox trademark by that time. As a result of Disney phasing out the Fox trademark, the Fox Sports networks that were still active had later became defunct and had either merged or rebranded under ESPN instead. As a result of this, Disney ultimately decided to shut down the international operations of Fox Sports two years earlier than what the contract intended, originally being 2024.
List of Fox Sports networks owned by Disney through Fox Sports International[]
Defunct[]
- Fox Sports (Africa) - Ceased operations; shut down on August 30, 2019 and rebranded as ESPN (Africa)
- Fox Sports & Entertainment - Ceased operations; operated under Fox Networks Group Japan (BS-Fox), which is also owned by Disney; shut down on March 31, 2020
- Fox Sports (Netherlands) - Ceased operations; operated under Eredivisie Media & Marketing CV, which is co-owned by Fox Networks Group Benelux, which is also owned by Disney; shut down on December 31, 2020 and rebranded as ESPN (Netherlands)
- Fox Sports (Mexico) - Sold to Grupo Multimedia Lauman on June 9, 2021
- Fox Sports (Argentina) - Sold to Grupo Mediapro on April 27, 2022
- Fox Sports (Asia) - Ceased operations; operated under Fox Networks Group Asia Pacific, which is also owned by Disney; shut down on October 1, 2021, meanwhile Fox Sports was replaced by Astro Supersport 5 in Malaysia, while SPOTV in other Asia regions
- Fox Sports (Latin America) - Ceased operations; shut down on December 1, 2021 and rebranded as ESPN4 (Latin America)
- Fox Sports (Brazil) - Ceased operations; shut down on January 17, 2022 and rebranded as ESPN4 (Brazil)
- Fox Sports 1 (Chile) Ceased operations; shut down on February 15, 2024 and rebranded as ESPN Premium (Chile)
- Fox Sports 2 (Brazil) - Ceased operations; shut down on February 15, 2024 and rebranded as ESPN5 (Brazil)
- Fox Sports 2 (Latin America) Ceased operations; shut down on February 15, 2024 and rebranded as ESPN7 (Latin America)
- Fox Sports 3 (Latin America) Ceased operations; shut down on February 15, 2024 and rebranded as ESPN6 (Latin America)
Other[]
Defunct[]
- Fox Sports International (Netherlands) - Ceased operations; operated under Eredivisie Media & Marketing CV, which is co-owned by Fox Networks Group Benelux, which is also owned by Disney; shut down on December 31, 2020 and rebranded as ESPN Inc. (Netherlands)
- Fox Sports Eredivisie - Ceased operations; operated under Eredivisie Media & Marketing CV, which is co-owned by Fox Networks Group Benelux, which is also owned by Disney; shut down on December 31, 2020 and rebranded as ESPN (Netherlands)
Trivia[]
- The South Korean network, JTBC3 Fox Sports, was actually operated by the company JTBC under license from 21st Century Fox, then Disney after they acquired Fox Sports' international assets, however after Disney began phasing out the Fox trademark, Disney ended their contract with JTBC and it was renamed to JTBC Golf&Sports.
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