Comcast to add Fuel TV after agreement with Fox
Perhaps in advance of the announcement of Fox Sports One (and potentially Fox Sports Two), Comcast has announced an agreement with Fox to add live and on demand programming from a total of 20 channels, including Fuel TV, which had not been widely carried nationally by Comcast prior to the agreement. Fuel, which has been branded as the home of the UFC since the MMA behemoth's debut on the Fox family of networks in September 2011, is expected to be rebranded as Fox Sports Two in the coming months following the rebranding of Speed as Fox Sports One.
The agreement affects nearly 22 million homes, increasing Fuel's current output by over 60%. It will surely help the UFC's ratings on Fuel, which have been impressive considering how small the distribution for Fuel is currently. The on demand part of the agreement will also allow Comcast to put various shows from FX and Fuel (among others) on their Xfinity on demand lineup, which could include UFC Tonight, UFC Fight Nights on FX and Fuel, and The Ultimate Fighter.
Going past the fight game, the Comcast/Fox agreement will help Fox Sports One and Two have a much stronger opening position after the rebrand this summer. The rest of the dominoes will begin to fall once customers not using DirecTV or Comcast have issues viewing more mainstream sports, and other cable companies start to crack under the pressure and add the rebranded Fuel due to its wider appeal.
It's not currently known when exactly Comcast will begin to carry Fuel, but it's expected to be in the next couple of weeks.
But here's a bit of an oddity in relation to this agreement: why is Comcast essentially helping NBC's competition in Fox? After Tuesday's announcement that Comcast would acquire the rest of NBC from GE, this agreement with Fox is helping them and hurting NBC Sports Network. Now, Comcast can aid themselves in different ways, like banishing Fuel away from the other sports channels on their cable lineup, but they're giving fans other options aside from NBC Sports Network. Perhaps Comcast will make that up to NBCSN and give them a boost in other ways.
[Comcast]
@GregPickel @PSUPoorman @awfulannouncing Im confused, I've always had FUEL in State College, channel 184. They talking about in HD?
@BWISnyder @GregPickel @awfulannouncing I think the new deal is the addition of Fuel to online and OnDemand. That'll change w Fox 1 n 2?
@BWISnyder Nah, FUEL was carried here, but not nationally. Soon will be, ahead of FOX re-branding FUEL and SPEED to FOX Sports 1 and 2.
@GregPickel OK, I was confused. I know all about Fox 1 and 2. Been reading on this for weeks. ESPN will have serious competition in 5 years
@BWISnyder Indeed. All about the inventory. Guess we'll see if "embrace debate" has people embracing ESPN as frequently in a few years.
@johnstouffer that was quick....I checked this morning on mine, and nothing was there yet. New channels randomly show up a lot though
@JoeCNC In your article you said FUEL TV wasn't available on Comcast, and that's incorrect. It is in a few regions. Just not many
@JoeCNC Nothing's been added since the deal, but FUEL TV was already available in a few regions such as Colorado.
@johnstouffer interesting, did not know that....the common response when anyone ever asked about it was "not on Comcast"
@JoeCNC Sorry if you got that response. We always said check FUEL TV website to see if it is - because its available in a few regions
@awfulannouncing with all of the restructuring, am I going to be getting more or less BPL? I still can't get a feel for which way.
@Kaufmak @awfulannouncing significantly more, unless you pay for Fox Soccer 2GO now. And it'll be in HD.
@Kaufmak my guess would be about the same, think NBC will air 3-5 games a week so it should be fairly comparable to ESPN/Fox Soccer
@awfulannouncing why am I never on here? All I do is blabbering about stuff between the benches. I don't even know what I say half the time!
