Foxnet was a national
cable
Cable may refer to:
Mechanical
* Nautical cable, an assembly of three or more ropes woven against the weave of the ropes, rendering it virtually waterproof
* Wire rope, a type of rope that consists of several strands of metal wire laid into a hel ...
programming service of the
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, LLC (commonly known as Fox; stylized in all caps) is an Television in the United States, American commercial broadcasting, commercial broadcast television broadcaster, television network serving as the flagship proper ...
(known simply as Fox) that was owned by the
Fox Entertainment Group
The Fox Entertainment Group (FEG) was an American entertainment company specialized in film studio, filmed entertainment owned by 21st Century Fox. Following the acquisition of 21st Century Fox by Disney, the group's assets were dispersed to va ...
division of
News Corporation
The original incarnation of News Corporation (abbreviated News Corp. and also variously known as News Corporation Limited) was an American Multinational corporation, multinational mass media corporation founded and controlled by media mogul Ru ...
. The service, which operated (in its original form) from June 6, 1991 to September 12, 2006, was intended for
American television markets ranked #100 and above by
Nielsen Media Research
Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rat ...
estimates that lacked availability for a locally based Fox broadcast affiliate.
Foxnet acted as a nationalized programming feed offering Fox
prime time
Prime time, or peak time, is the block of broadcast programming taking place during the middle of the evening for television shows. It is mostly targeted towards adults (and sometimes families). It is used by the major television networks to ...
,
sports
Sport is a physical activity or game, often competitive and organized, that maintains or improves physical ability and skills. Sport may provide enjoyment to participants and entertainment to spectators. The number of participants in ...
and
children's programming, and a master schedule of
syndicated entertainment and
brokered programs that were broadcast outside of time periods designated for Fox programming. Fox handled programming, advertising and promotional services for the service at its Fox Network Center corporate headquarters at the Fox Studio Lot in the
Century City
Century City is a 176-acre (71.2 ha) neighborhood and business district in Los Angeles, California, United States. Located on the Westside to the south of Santa Monica Boulevard around 10 miles (16 km) west of downtown Los Angeles, Cent ...
district of
Los Angeles
Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
.
Since 2017, Fox (owned by indirect successor
Fox Corporation
Fox Corporation (commonly referred to as Fox Corp or simply Fox) is an American multinational mass media company headquartered at 1211 Avenue of the Americas, 1211 Avenue of the Americas in Midtown Manhattan, with offices also in Burbank, Cali ...
since 2019) has at times provided a generic national feed of the network (identified as "Foxnet" on certain
interactive program guides) to selected cable and
virtual multichannel video programming distributors (vMVPD) without access to a local or nearby Fox station, or in the event that a local affiliate is off the air temporarily due to transmitter damage caused by
severe weather
Severe weather is any dangerous meteorological phenomenon with the potential to cause damage, serious social disruption, or loss of human life. These vary depending on the latitude, altitude, topography, and atmospheric conditions. High ...
.
History
Background
At the time of the service's launch in 1991, Fox's programming reached only 91.75% of all U.S. households with at least one television set, giving it the lowest nationwide coverage among the four largest American broadcast networks of the time. This was because, around the time of the network's launch in October 1986, most large and mid-sized markets were served by at least four commercial
over-the-air television station
A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the earth's s ...
s: three that were each
affiliated with one of the
established broadcast networks,
ABC,
NBC and
CBS; and one that usually operated as an
independent station
An independent station is a broadcast station, usually a television station, not affiliated with a larger broadcast television network, network. As such, it only broadcasts broadcast syndication, syndicated programs it has purchased; brokered pr ...
, usually offering a mix of syndicated programs, movies and in many cases, sports. Independents, most of which had no prior history as a major network affiliate, made up the vast majority of Fox's charter affiliates (in most cases, the network aligned with the highest-rated independent within a particular market).
Many smaller markets, however, were served by three or fewer commercial stations, most of which were already affiliated with at least one of the existing major broadcast networks. This issue left Fox's only options to reach these areas being to either settle for a secondary affiliation with one of the major network stations (which would have forced Fox programs to air in off-peak timeslots subject to lower viewership or in a hodgepodge of program and timeslot clearances), going with a station owned by a religious broadcaster which could block portions of their schedule based on moral concerns (which actually was the cause of Fox terminating several affiliations in its early days), or affiliate with a spare
low-power station, which often maintained low-quality schedules prevalent with
home shopping or
paid programming outside of prime time and were usually associated with smaller networks such as
Channel America; the network rarely utilized these options in order to not associate their programming with low-effort stations and networks, leaving it with gaps in national clearance in several smaller markets, while it only carried secondary affiliations on Big Three stations only starting in 1994 to distribute their
NFL coverage in some scattered markets until a stand-alone station could launch.
To expand its distribution to these areas, original network president
Jamie Kellner (who would remain in the role until his departure in 1993, when he co-founded
Time Warner
Warner Media, LLC ( doing business as WarnerMedia) was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate owned by AT&T. It was headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City.
It was established as Time Warne ...
and the
Tribune Company's network venture
The WB
The WB Television Network (shortened to The WB, stylized as "THE WB", and nicknamed the "Frog Network" and/or "The Frog" for its former mascot Michigan J. Frog) was an American television network that ran from 1995 to 2006. It launched on ter ...
) developed the concept of a national cable feed of Fox that would provide the network's programming to smaller television markets throughout the United States where the network could not maintain an exclusive over-the-air affiliation – known as "white areas" – due to the limited number of commercial television stations available or where a local cable provider did not import the signal of an out-of-market Fox station to act as a default affiliate of the network.
Development and launch
On September 6, 1990, Fox reached an agreement with
Tele-Communications Inc. – at the time, the nation's largest cable operator – in which TCI systems in certain markets would become charter affiliates of a cable-only version of the network, breaking the traditional method of broadcast networks offering their programming to over-the-air television stations that distribute content to local cable systems.
John C. Malone, then the
chief executive officer
A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization.
CEOs find roles in variou ...
of TCI, referred to the agreement as "precedent setting" since it allowed TCI systems to obtain "network affiliate status" in places where Fox programming was not available.
When it launched, Fox charged smaller cable providers that agreed to carry Foxnet a flat annual carriage fee of $100, instead of the monthly fees traditionally charged by other broadcast and cable channels; in turn, TCI agreed to pay Fox a subscriber fee of 6¢ per month, a precursor to the
reverse compensation revenue model that Fox and other broadcast networks would adopt for their conventional stations by the early 2000s.
Foxnet launched on June 6, 1991, originally maintaining an 18-hour daily schedule (from 6:00 a.m. to 1:00 a.m.
Eastern and
Pacific Time).
The service maintained a master schedule of programs intended for broadcast syndication from various distributors (some sourced from then-sister company
20th Television) and
brokered programming to pad out its broadcast day outside of Fox programming hours, utilizing a general entertainment format similar to that of the parent network's broadcast stations during that timeframe. (At the time Foxnet debuted, Fox only offered a limited schedule of prime time programs—two hours Thursday through Saturday, and four hours on Sundays—and the nascent
Fox Kids
Fox Kids (originally known as Fox Children's Network and later as the Fox Kids Network; stylized in all caps) was an American children's programming block and branding for a slate of international children's television channels. Originally a j ...
block, then consisting of a three-hour Saturday morning lineup as well as a single half-hour program each weekday.) FoxNet's inaugural schedule consisted mostly of theatrical and made-for-TV movies, and reruns of classic and obscure television series from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s (such as ''
The Ann Sothern Show'', ''
Husbands, Wives & Lovers'', ''
The Felony Squad'' and ''
Peyton Place''); separate national advertising airing within syndicated programs and local ad slots during Fox network shows mainly consisted per inquiry ads and
public service announcement
A public service announcement (PSA) is a message in the public interest disseminated by the media without charge to raise public awareness and change behavior. Oftentimes these messages feature unsettling imagery, ideas or behaviors that are des ...
s in its early years.
During its existence, the service never officially identified itself specifically as "Foxnet" on-air; its
network identifications consisted solely of the Fox logo in use at the time, with a
voiceover reading "you're watching Fox." (Separate logos incorporating Foxnet branding were used to advertise the service in media publications and promotional materials for prospective providers.) Timeslot cards and verbal continuity announcements
promoting the service's syndicated programs identified show airtimes by
Eastern Time Zone
The Eastern Time Zone (ET) is a time zone encompassing part or all of 23 U.S. states, states in the eastern part of the United States, parts of eastern Canada, and the state of Quintana Roo in Mexico.
* Eastern Standard Time (EST) is five ...
scheduling (sometimes accompanied by
Central Time references, mirroring conventional network promotions). By 1992, Foxnet reached 1.3 million subscribers throughout the United States, and served nearly two million viewers at its peak.
As Fox expanded its presence to most television markets through primary affiliations with full-power or low-power broadcast television stations (the latter now more well-associated under the ownership of other full-power stations and refusing the low-quality networks and paid programming prevalent in the early low-power era), and by the mid-2000s, carriage on
digital subchannels of stations affiliated with other broadcast networks, Foxnet's coverage had in turn shrunk to the point where very few areas had a need for the service. In addition, most cable providers in markets that remained unserved by a local Fox station until it acquired a standalone primary or subchannel-only affiliation began importing out-of-market affiliates to relay the network's programming (in many cases, replacing Foxnet on the provider's lineup), or in rare cases, partnered with an already-existing
major network affiliate to create a dedicated Fox cable channel (one such example was "CGEM" in the
Hannibal, Missouri
Hannibal is a city along the Mississippi River in Marion County, Missouri, Marion and Ralls County, Missouri, Ralls counties in the U.S. state of Missouri. According to the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. Census, the population was 17,108, ...
/
Quincy, Illinois
Quincy ( ) is a city in Adams County, Illinois, United States, and its county seat. Located on the Mississippi River, the population was 39,463 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, down from 40,633 in 2010. The Quincy, Illinois, mic ...
media market, which was initially operated by NBC affiliate
WGEM-TV and
Continental Cablevision at the time of its launch in 1994 before migrating to a digital subchannel of WGEM-TV in 2006). Foxnet was also carried in portions of some larger media markets where a reliable signal from an over-the-air affiliate or a translator was not receivable; one such example included
Eastern Iowa (where
KOCR's signal only covered
Cedar Rapids
Cedar Rapids is a city in Linn County, Iowa, United States, and its county seat
A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in u ...
and
Iowa City
Iowa City is the largest city in Johnson County, Iowa, United States, and its county seat. At the time of the 2020 census the population was 74,828, making it the state's fifth-most populous city. The Iowa City metropolitan area, which enc ...
and not the cities of
Waterloo or
Dubuque
Dubuque (, ) is a city in Dubuque County, Iowa, United States, and its county seat. The population was 59,667 at the 2020 United States census. The city lies along the Mississippi River at the junction of Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin, a region ...
; Foxnet was carried across most of Eastern Iowa between October 1994 and
KFXB-TV's affiliation with Fox in August 1995 as KOCR was off the air during that time owing to financial issues).
Viewers in Foxnet markets that had a subscription to a
direct broadcast satellite
Satellite television is a service that delivers television programming to viewers by relaying it from a communications satellite orbiting the Earth directly to the viewer's location.ITU Radio Regulations, Section IV. Radio Stations and Systems ...
service also had the ability to watch an out-of-market Fox station via a given provider after receiving permission from the network:
DirecTV
DirecTV, LLC is an American Multichannel television in the United States, multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital Satellite television, s ...
and
Dish Network subscribers could receive network-owned
KTTV (channel 11) from
Los Angeles
Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
or
WNYW (channel 5) from
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
; until that provider's 1999 merger with DirecTV, subscribers of
Primestar could receive either
Oakland/
San Francisco
San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
affiliate
KTVU (channel 2, also now a Fox owned-and-operated station) or
Philadelphia
Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...
affiliate-turned-O&O
WTXF-TV (channel 29). However, in some cases, satellite subscribers could receive the Fox station with rights to the network's programming within the market. As a result, some areas that were not served by a Fox affiliate at the time of the network's launch never offered Foxnet; examples included
Palm Springs, California
Palm Springs (Cahuilla language, Cahuilla: ''Séc-he'') is a desert resort city in Riverside County, California, United States, within the Colorado Desert's Coachella Valley. The city covers approximately , making it the largest city in Rivers ...
(which was served by KTTV prior to
KDFX-CD's September 1994 switch from CBS to Fox),
South Bend, Indiana (which was served by
WFLD/
Chicago
Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
,
WXMI/
Grand Rapids
Grand Rapids is the largest city and county seat of Kent County, Michigan, United States. With a population of 198,917 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census and estimated at 200,117 in 2024, Grand Rapids is the List of municipalities ...
and
WFFT-TV/
Fort Wayne
Fort Wayne is a city in Allen County, Indiana, United States, and its county seat. Located in northeastern Indiana, the city is west of the Ohio border and south of the Michigan border. The city's population was 263,886 at the 2020 United S ...
prior to
WSJV's October 1995 switch from ABC to Fox) and the western portion of the
Plattsburgh/
Burlington market (which was mostly served by WNYW prior to
WFFF-TV's August 1997 sign-on).
From October 2001 to April 2003, most Fox programming in the state of
Maine
Maine ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the United States, and the northeasternmost state in the Contiguous United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and ...
was only available via Foxnet, as
WPXT (which served as the network's
Portland affiliate) disaffiliated from the network to join The WB after affiliation renewal negotiations between then-owner Pegasus Broadcasting and Fox broke down; that station had been carried by cable providers in
Bangor since the network's launch. When
WPFO and
WFVX-LD
WFVX-LD (channel 22) is a television station in Bangor, Maine, United States, affiliated with the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox network. It is owned by Rockfleet Broadcasting alongside American Broadcasting Company, ABC affiliate WVII-TV (channel ...
affiliated with Fox in the respective markets, Foxnet was relegated to the
Presque Isle area, which was one of the last remaining markets without a local Fox affiliate. A similar situation happened in
southwestern Mississippi when
WDBD (also affected by the Pegasus–Fox dispute) initially disaffiliated from the network at that time also to join The WB; WDBD would eventually reaffiliate with Fox in 2006, taking the affiliation from
WUFX (which signed on in September 2003, now WLOO).
Discontinuation
As time went on, more local or adjacent-market Fox affiliates became available over-the-air or on cable in smaller markets. Eventually, Foxnet's national coverage was reduced to the level where it was only carried on a few small cable systems, none of which had more than 1,000 subscribers. As such, it no longer made economic sense for the service to remain on the air. It was for this reason that Fox's then-owner News Corporation (whose entertainment assets were largely
spun off into
21st Century Fox
Twenty-First Century Fox, Inc., which did business as 21st Century Fox, was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate based in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It was formed on June 28, 2013, as the legal successor ...
in July 2013) made the decision to discontinue Foxnet. The service officially shut down on September 12, 2006; it was originally slated to cease operations two weeks earlier on September 1, but the shutdown was delayed in order to allow ABC affiliate
WABG-TV in
Greenwood, Mississippi and CBS affiliate
WAGM-TV in Presque Isle time to quickly launch Fox affiliates on their second digital subchannels.
Because of Foxnet's shutdown, 13,000 cable subscribers nationwide were estimated to have lost access to Fox network programming. By this time, the network's market share had increased to 98.97% of all U.S. television households. Indeed, network executives had been looking forward to the point that its national penetration had increased to the level that Foxnet would no longer be needed.
[UPN, also aired Fox programming.]
The concept and programming strategy behind Foxnet served as the basis for
The WB 100+ Station Group, a service owned by Time Warner and Tribune that operated from September 1998 to September 2006 – which was succeeded by
The CW Plus, once The WB and
UPN were shut down and replaced by
The CW
The CW Network, LLC (commonly referred to as The CW or simply CW) is an American commercial broadcast television network which is controlled by Nexstar Media Group through a 75% ownership interest. The network's name is derived from the firs ...
in September 2006 – for markets that did not have a WB-affiliated station. Though unlike Foxnet, The WB 100+, which was also co-founded by Kellner, was stylized (to an extent) similarly to an over-the-air broadcast station and local operators were allowed to tailor the service to their individual market with their own branding, with some of the outlets even carrying local news or sports programming. Foxnet, however, was formatted in the manner of a traditional cable channel with no local programming content provided by its carriers.
2017-present: Partial revival with Hulu and as emergency backup service
In May 2017,
Hulu
Hulu (, ) is an American Subscription business model, subscription streaming media service owned by Disney Streaming, a subsidiary of the Disney Entertainment segment of the Walt Disney Company. It was launched on October 29, 2007, initially as ...
(then partially owned by
21st Century Fox
Twenty-First Century Fox, Inc., which did business as 21st Century Fox, was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate based in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It was formed on June 28, 2013, as the legal successor ...
, Fox's owner at the time) launched an optional live TV offering that included feeds of local Fox O&Os and affiliates which had agreed to contractual terms to distribute their programming through the streaming service. In June 2017, ''
The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...
'' (a sister newspaper to Fox through the
Murdoch family's shared ownership of
News Corp
The second and current incarnation of News Corporation, doing business as News Corp, is an American mass media and publishing company headquartered at 1211 Avenue of the Americas in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The company was formed on ...
) mentioned that Fox had offered a secondary national feed to serve selected markets where local affiliates (mainly those owned by
Sinclair Broadcast Group and
Raycom Media
Raycom Media, Inc. was an American television broadcasting company based in Montgomery, Alabama, Montgomery, Alabama. Raycom owned and/or provided services for 65 television stations and two radio stations across 44 markets in 20 states. Raycom ...
) had not come to terms with Hulu to provide access to their station feeds.
The national Fox live feed, however, differs drastically from the structure of Foxnet in that secondary programming from Fox's sister cable networks, including
Fox News Channel
The Fox News Channel (FNC), commonly known as Fox News, is an American multinational conservative news and political commentary television channel and website based in New York City, U.S. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is ow ...
and
Fox Business Network, and previously
National Geographic Channel and
Nat Geo Wild
National Geographic Wild (shortened as Nat Geo Wild and abbreviated NGW) is a global pay television network owned by National Geographic Partners, a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (73%) and the National Geographic Society (27% ...
(both now majority-owned by
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was founded on October 16 ...
through its
2019 acquisition of
20th Century Fox
20th Century Studios, Inc., formerly 20th Century Fox, is an American film studio, film production and Film distributor, distribution company owned by the Walt Disney Studios (division), Walt Disney Studios, the film studios division of the ...
and most
Fox Entertainment Group
The Fox Entertainment Group (FEG) was an American entertainment company specialized in film studio, filmed entertainment owned by 21st Century Fox. Following the acquisition of 21st Century Fox by Disney, the group's assets were dispersed to va ...
assets from the Murdochs), is offered outside of network programming hours, rather than any syndicated content. Like Foxnet, this national feed is likely to eventually be discontinued as Fox and the network's affiliates agree to terms allowing full streaming of their stations on the Hulu live TV service and other streaming live television providers under future affiliation agreements.
After the landfall of
Hurricane Laura in August 2020,
KVHP, the Fox affiliate for
Lake Charles, Louisiana, was taken off the air as its studio facility (shared with fellow
Gray Television-owned NBC affiliate
KPLC) sustained damage when their
studio transmitter link tower toppled into the building. Fox then fed its default national feed meant for streaming use to local cable providers until KVHP resumed full operations at the end of 2020. Fox also provided the default national feed to
YouTube TV
YouTube TV is an American Pay television, subscription Over-the-top media service, over-the-top streaming television service operated by YouTube, a subsidiary of Google, which in turn is a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc., who announced YouTube TV ...
subscribers in the
Tallahassee, Florida
Tallahassee ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat of and the only incorporated municipality in Leon County, Florida, Leon County. Tallahassee became the capital of Fl ...
market in September 2024, after that provider lost access to
WTWC-DT2 (as well as its Sinclair-owned parent NBC affiliate, which was temporarily replaced by that network's New York City flagship station
WNBC
WNBC (channel 4) is a television station in New York City that serves as the flagship (broadcasting), flagship of the NBC network. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Linden, New Jersey� ...
) amid the landfall of
Hurricane Helene
Hurricane Helene ( ) was a deadly and devastating tropical cyclone that caused widespread catastrophic damage and numerous fatalities across the Southeastern United States in late September 2024. It was the strongest hurricane on record to ...
.
Programming
Foxnet aired the Fox network's primetime schedule and its children's programming blocks (originally
Fox Kids
Fox Kids (originally known as Fox Children's Network and later as the Fox Kids Network; stylized in all caps) was an American children's programming block and branding for a slate of international children's television channels. Originally a j ...
, then
FoxBox/4Kids TV from September 2002 onward); beginning with the network's assumption of rights to the
NFL's
National Football Conference
The National Football Conference (NFC) is a conference of the National Football League (NFL), the highest level of professional American football in the United States. The NFC and its counterpart, the American Football Conference (AFC), each h ...
in September 1994, it also carries telecasts of sporting events produced by the
Fox Sports
Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world. The name originates from Fox Broadcasting Company in the United States, which in turn derives its name from Fox Fi ...
division, though being a national service having to choose from certain games rather than taking regional coverage, it was possible for an
NHL
The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...
,
NFL or
MLB matchup with teams with no rooting interest in a certain area to be of no interest to those viewers. In some areas where Foxnet was offered, affiliates of other networks carried secondary affiliations with Fox to air the network's sports programming (and in some areas children's programming) over-the-air; during this time, some cable systems blacked out Foxnet whenever sports programming was aired due to
syndex laws.
Otherwise, a dual programming model was utilized for Foxnet that differed from the traditional affiliate model – in which the local station handled responsibilities for acquiring and scheduling syndicated and local programming to fill timeslots not occupied by network content – that is used by Fox stations in large and medium-sized markets. Fox maintained responsibility over the programming of timeslots within Foxnet's schedule that were not occupied by Fox network programming, absolving the local cable provider of the duty of having to acquire syndicated programming to fill timeslots outside of Fox's network schedule. The acquired programs primarily consisted of shows that were airing at the time in national syndication and classic television series; syndicated
film
A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...
packages – with most titles being sourced from the library of then-sister studio
20th Century Fox
20th Century Studios, Inc., formerly 20th Century Fox, is an American film studio, film production and Film distributor, distribution company owned by the Walt Disney Studios (division), Walt Disney Studios, the film studios division of the ...
– usually filled select weekend timeslots (which following the incorporation of Fox Sports in 1994, began to be limited to weekend time periods that were not occupied by sports programming), and, until 1993, primetime slots (Fox began offering primetime shows seven nights a week in the fall of that year). Fox also leased time to
direct response program producers and ministries to carry
brokered programming (such as
infomercial
An infomercial is a form of television commercial that resembles regular TV programming yet is intended to promote or sell a product, service or idea. It generally includes a toll-free telephone number or website. Most often used as a form of di ...
s and
religious programs) during overnight and some morning and early afternoon timeslots.
Foxnet was designed for the
Eastern and
Pacific Time Zone
The Pacific Time Zone (PT) is a time zone encompassing parts of western Canada, the western United States, and western Mexico. Places in this zone observe standard time by subtracting eight hours from Coordinated Universal Time ( UTC−08:00 ...
s; as such, the Fox Kids and (from September 2002 to September 2006, after the network leased its children's programming to
4Kids Entertainment
4Kids Entertainment, Inc. (formerly known as Leisure Concepts, Inc. and later known as 4Licensing Corporation; stylized as 4K!DS ENTERTAINMENT) was an American licensing company. The company was previously also a film and television production ...
) 4Kids TV blocks, which were designed to be
tape-delayed, were aired an hour early on affiliates in other time zones. As the network was carried as a cable network without any broadcast distribution, the FCC's
educational content regulations for children's programming did not need to be fulfilled, nor was it subject to any FCC regulations which applied to broadcast networks.
Foxnet carried one original program, ''
The Spud Goodman Show'', a talk show that aired Sunday nights at 10:00 p.m. Eastern Time – following the conclusion of Fox's primetime lineup – from 1996 to 1998. Though Fox did not carry any national news programming of its own at the time of its launch (and only has one news program presently on its schedule in the form of the
political talk show ''
Fox News Sunday''), Foxnet did carry a simulcast of sister network
Fox News Channel
The Fox News Channel (FNC), commonly known as Fox News, is an American multinational conservative news and political commentary television channel and website based in New York City, U.S. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is ow ...
's daily evening newscast ''
Fox Report'' in the 10:00 p.m. (Eastern) time slot from February 1999 until the service's discontinuation.
Dramas
Comedies
Reality/other
Children's programming
See also
*
WGN America – a cable channel that originally operated as a superstation feed of
WGN-TV
WGN-TV (channel 9) is a television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States, serving as the local outlet for The CW. It is owned and operated by the network's majority owner, Nexstar Media Group, and is sister station, sister to the company ...
, which broadcast programming from
The WB Television Network for markets without an affiliate from January 1995 to October 1999
*
The WB 100+ Station Group – a similar cable-only network for markets without an affiliate of The WB, that operated from September 1998 to September 2006
*
The CW Plus – a successor of The WB 100+; most of the remaining cable-only channels and some over-the-air stations that are outlets of The CW Plus formerly served as affiliates of The WB 100+ Station Group
*
Univision – American Spanish-language network that offers a national cable/satellite feed for markets without a local affiliate
*
UniMás
UniMás (, stylized as ''UNIMÁS'', and originally known as TeleFutura from its launch on January 14, 2002, to January 6, 2013) is an American Spanish-language terrestrial television, free-to-air television network owned by TelevisaUnivision. ...
– American Spanish-language network that offers a national cable/satellite feed for markets without a local affiliate
*
Telemundo – American Spanish-language network that offers a national cable/satellite feed for markets without a local affiliate
*
Azteca América – American Spanish-language network that formerly offered a national cable/satellite feed for markets without a local affiliate
*
Estrella TV – American Spanish-language network that offers a national cable/satellite feed for markets without a local affiliate
*
CTV 2 Alberta – a similar cable-only affiliate of
CTV 2 in the Canadian province of
Alberta
Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...
(formerly known as Access)
*
CTV 2 Atlantic – a similar cable-only affiliate of CTV 2 in
Atlantic Canada
Atlantic Canada, also called the Atlantic provinces (), is the list of regions of Canada, region of Eastern Canada comprising four provinces: New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. As of 2021, the landma ...
(formerly known as the Atlantic Satellite Network and A Atlantic)
*
Citytv Saskatchewan – a similar cable-only affiliate of
Citytv
Citytv (sometimes shortened to City, which was the network's official branding from 2012 to 2018) is a Television in Canada, Canadian television network owned by the Rogers Sports & Media subsidiary of Rogers Communications. The network consis ...
in the Canadian province of
Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada. It is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and to the south by the ...
(formerly known as the Saskatchewan Communications Network)
Notes and references
External links
{{commons category, Foxnet
Fox Broadcasting Company
Defunct television networks in the United States
Television channels and stations established in 1991
Television channels and stations disestablished in 2006
1991 establishments in the United States
2006 disestablishments in the United States