Regis Philbin Returns, This Time on Fox’s Answer to ESPN

Regis Philbin sat beside Michael Strahan on Tuesday in a Manhattan hotel ballroom but it was not a gathering of Kelly Ripa’s past and present co-hosts of the morning show formerly called “Live! with Regis and Kelly.”

Instead, it was the announcement by the Fox Sports Media Group that on Aug. 17 it will start a new national sports cable network, Fox Sports, that will carry live sports, news programs, documentaries and a weekday afternoon panel show to be hosted by Mr. Philbin.

“I never in a million years expected to be thought of as a sportscaster,” Mr. Philbin, a prominent Notre Dame fan, said during the event at the Marriott Marquis Hotel.

He was not contemplating a comeback to live television, just over a year since he left “Regis and Kelly.” But Rick Rosner, a friend and producer, introduced him to Eric Shanks, the co-president of the Fox Sports Media Group. Mr. Philbin, in turn, impressed David Hill, Mr. Shanks’ former boss in the sports division of News Corporatin, who has returned from another job at News Corporation to help start Fox Sports 1.

“I honestly think that when this show gets on the air, people will say, `Why didn’t this happen before’” Mr. Shanks said.

Mr. Philbin’s show, “Rush Hour” will compete from 5 to 6 p.m. Eastern against two of ESPN’s established talk programs, “Around the Horn” and “Pardon the Interruption.” “We originally talked about a once-a-month special, but then it came to this,” Mr. Philbin said. “I didn’t even realize they were starting a network until they called me.”

He laughed that at 81, he is being asked to appeal to the coveted sports audience of men 18 to 49.

Bill Wanger, an executive vice president of the Fox Sports Media Group, said, “When Regis was on with Kelly it was No. 1 in syndication among viewers 18-to-34. Regis has appeal across young and old.”

Fox Sports 1 will be filled with college basketball and football; a 26! -week slate of Major League Baseball, including some postseason division series and league championship games, starting in 2014; Nascar Sprint Cup and Camping World Truck Series races; UEFA Champions League soccer and future men’s and women’s World Cup games, and mixed martial arts fights from the UFC.

The network will also carry “Fox Sports Live,” a nightly news program and a daily football show, “Fox Football Daily,” which will be hosted by Mr. Bradshaw. The network has been in the works, on and off, for 15 years, and is intended to compete with ESPN’s live sports, news and studio programming. Indeed, Fox is challenging ESPN’s “SportsCenter.”

“That really is the big megillah,” Mr. Hill said, who politely added that ESPN has “no weaknesses,” and that Fox Sports 1 will face a “long slog” before it will be a strong rival to the 34-year-old sports media giant. Said Mr. Wanger: “We’ll have to scratch and claw our way to the top.”

Fox executives believe hat the personalities and style it brought to broadcast sports - it has long used the slogan, “Same Game, New Attitude” â€" will help sell sports fans on the network. But, Mr. Shanks added, “we have the games people want to watch.”

Regis Philbin Returns, This Time on Fox’s Answer to ESPN

Regis Philbin sat beside Michael Strahan on Tuesday in a Manhattan hotel ballroom but it was not a gathering of Kelly Ripa’s past and present co-hosts of the morning show formerly called “Live! with Regis and Kelly.”

Instead, it was the announcement by the Fox Sports Media Group that on Aug. 17 it will start a new national sports cable network, Fox Sports, that will carry live sports, news programs, documentaries and a weekday afternoon panel show to be hosted by Mr. Philbin.

“I never in a million years expected to be thought of as a sportscaster,” Mr. Philbin, a prominent Notre Dame fan, said during the event at the Marriott Marquis Hotel.

He was not contemplating a comeback to live television, just over a year since he left “Regis and Kelly.” But Rick Rosner, a friend and producer, introduced him to Eric Shanks, the co-president of the Fox Sports Media Group. Mr. Philbin, in turn, impressed David Hill, Mr. Shanks’ former boss in the sports division of News Corporatin, who has returned from another job at News Corporation to help start Fox Sports 1.

“I honestly think that when this show gets on the air, people will say, `Why didn’t this happen before’” Mr. Shanks said.

Mr. Philbin’s show, “Rush Hour” will compete from 5 to 6 p.m. Eastern against two of ESPN’s established talk programs, “Around the Horn” and “Pardon the Interruption.” “We originally talked about a once-a-month special, but then it came to this,” Mr. Philbin said. “I didn’t even realize they were starting a network until they called me.”

He laughed that at 81, he is being asked to appeal to the coveted sports audience of men 18 to 49.

Bill Wanger, an executive vice president of the Fox Sports Media Group, said, “When Regis was on with Kelly it was No. 1 in syndication among viewers 18-to-34. Regis has appeal across young and old.”

Fox Sports 1 will be filled with college basketball and football; a 26! -week slate of Major League Baseball, including some postseason division series and league championship games, starting in 2014; Nascar Sprint Cup and Camping World Truck Series races; UEFA Champions League soccer and future men’s and women’s World Cup games, and mixed martial arts fights from the UFC.

The network will also carry “Fox Sports Live,” a nightly news program and a daily football show, “Fox Football Daily,” which will be hosted by Mr. Bradshaw. The network has been in the works, on and off, for 15 years, and is intended to compete with ESPN’s live sports, news and studio programming. Indeed, Fox is challenging ESPN’s “SportsCenter.”

“That really is the big megillah,” Mr. Hill said, who politely added that ESPN has “no weaknesses,” and that Fox Sports 1 will face a “long slog” before it will be a strong rival to the 34-year-old sports media giant. Said Mr. Wanger: “We’ll have to scratch and claw our way to the top.”

Fox executives believe hat the personalities and style it brought to broadcast sports - it has long used the slogan, “Same Game, New Attitude” â€" will help sell sports fans on the network. But, Mr. Shanks added, “we have the games people want to watch.”

Sports Illustrated Lands New Armstrong Interview

Lance Armstrong thought about bypassing the media and making an confessional video for the Web that would have detailed his substance abuse and included an apology to his fans. But instead he sat down with Oprah Winfrey, and he doesn’t regret the choice, Mr. Armstrong told a writer for Sports Illustrated in a column that will be published online on Tuesday.

Mr. Armstrong spoke to the writer, Michael McCann, at length last month, but only on the condition that he not be quoted directly. Mr. McCann, a sports law expert, is a part-time legal analyst and writer for the magazine and its Web site.

His column is a summation of his conversation with Mr. Armstrong, including this the fact that Mr. Armstrong almost sat down with the former “NBC Nightly News” anchor Tom Brokaw instead of Ms. Winfrey. Mr. Brokaw, who is now a special correspondent for NBC News.

“He had also weighed the possibility of producing a four- to five-minute video that would have been available on his official Web sie, as well as YouTube, Facebook and other sites,” Mr. McCann wrote. The video would have allowed Mr. Armstrong to look straight into the camera and apologize â€" and would have allowed him to avoid Ms. Winfrey’s questions.

“Ultimately he concluded that a conversation would be a more natural vehicle than a scripted speech, and the choice was between Winfrey and Brokaw,” Mr. McCann added.

Sports Illustrated billed the interview as Mr. Armstrong’s second, since Ms. Winfrey’s interview was televised six weeks ago. It came about rather serendipitously, after Mr. McCann noticed that Mr. Armstrong had started following him on Twitter. Mr. McCann struck up a conversation with Mr. Armstrong via Twitter’s direct message feature, and eventually suggested that the two men meet up. Mr. Armstrong invited him to his home in Austin.

The ensuing meeting took ! place on Feb. 27, and there were no restrictions placed on it, other than the no-direct-quotes rule. Mr. McCann said Mr. Armstrong “displayed a range of emotions, from conviction to sorrow.”

Sports Illustrated Lands New Armstrong Interview

Lance Armstrong thought about bypassing the media and making an confessional video for the Web that would have detailed his substance abuse and included an apology to his fans. But instead he sat down with Oprah Winfrey, and he doesn’t regret the choice, Mr. Armstrong told a writer for Sports Illustrated in a column that will be published online on Tuesday.

Mr. Armstrong spoke to the writer, Michael McCann, at length last month, but only on the condition that he not be quoted directly. Mr. McCann, a sports law expert, is a part-time legal analyst and writer for the magazine and its Web site.

His column is a summation of his conversation with Mr. Armstrong, including this the fact that Mr. Armstrong almost sat down with the former “NBC Nightly News” anchor Tom Brokaw instead of Ms. Winfrey. Mr. Brokaw, who is now a special correspondent for NBC News.

“He had also weighed the possibility of producing a four- to five-minute video that would have been available on his official Web sie, as well as YouTube, Facebook and other sites,” Mr. McCann wrote. The video would have allowed Mr. Armstrong to look straight into the camera and apologize â€" and would have allowed him to avoid Ms. Winfrey’s questions.

“Ultimately he concluded that a conversation would be a more natural vehicle than a scripted speech, and the choice was between Winfrey and Brokaw,” Mr. McCann added.

Sports Illustrated billed the interview as Mr. Armstrong’s second, since Ms. Winfrey’s interview was televised six weeks ago. It came about rather serendipitously, after Mr. McCann noticed that Mr. Armstrong had started following him on Twitter. Mr. McCann struck up a conversation with Mr. Armstrong via Twitter’s direct message feature, and eventually suggested that the two men meet up. Mr. Armstrong invited him to his home in Austin.

The ensuing meeting took ! place on Feb. 27, and there were no restrictions placed on it, other than the no-direct-quotes rule. Mr. McCann said Mr. Armstrong “displayed a range of emotions, from conviction to sorrow.”

Rich and Proud of It, Saudi Billionaire Leaves Forbes List for Bloomberg’s

It’s report card time for the world’s billionaires and one contender is balking about his grades. But as journalism about the world’s wealthy grows, this billionaire now can take his complaints to a competitor.

Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal of Saudi Arabia who appeared in the Forbes annual billionaire’s list published this week said that he will no longer cooperate with Forbes on its lists and asked that he no longer be included in the rankings. As a dig to Forbes, he has promised to continue to cooperate with Bloomberg on its far newer billionaire rankings.

After the Forbes rankings were posted online on Monday, the prince announced in a news release that his team has worked with Forbes for the last six years and uncovered what they called “intentional biases and inconsistencies in the Forbes valuation process.” The prince added that “he coud no longer participate in a process which resulted in the use of incorrect data and seemed intended to disadvantage Middle Eastern investors and institutions.”

A spokeswoman for Forbes Media noted that the prince has plenty to be pleased about: his ranking rose to 26 for a $20 billion net worth from a ranking of 29 the year before for a net worth of $18 billion. The spokeswoman said it’s just $9.6 billion less than the prince claims he is worth.

On Tuesday morning, Forbes released an article that showed just how long this battle has been simmering between Forbes and its editors. Kerry A. Dolan, who reports on the wealthy and the Forbes billionaire’s list, wrote that Forbes has engaged with the prince over “a quarter cent! ury of lobbying, cajoling and threatening when it comes to his net worth listing.” Ms. Dolan added that “of the 1,426 billionaires on our list, not one â€" not even the vainglorious Donald Trump â€" goes to greater measure to try to affect his or her ranking.” In one case, the prince grew so upset about a prior ranking that “he called me at home the day after the list was released, sounding nearly in tears. ‘What do you want’ he pleaded.”

Ms. Dolan said that Forbes had started to further investigate the prince’s net worth based on the guidance of former employees who noted that, based on fluctuations in his company’s stock price, that he was using the public company to inflate his net worth. In fact, the magazine tracked how the prince’s company’s stock price seems to rise in the ten weeks before Forbes locks in its values for the billionaire’s list.

A Forbes spokeswoman said that it would continue to feature the prince on future lists. Mike Perlis, president and chief xecutive officer of Forbes, added that the prince had an amicable interview with Steve Forbes before a crowd of several hundred tycoons during the Forbes Global CEO conference in Dubai in October.

But moving forward, the prince announced he would cooperate with Bloomberg on its billionaires list. Bloomberg just started publishing a billionaires’ list last March after Matthew G. Miller, former global wealth editor at Forbes Media, moved there and started tapping into Bloomberg’s 2,400 journalists to contribute. The prince said in a statement that he would continue to work with Bloomberg because they use “a more accurate method of calculating financial holdings.”

The Breakfast Meeting: TV Pilots Move to the Web and Fox Prepares to Take On ESPN

TV shows like “House of Cards,” “Hemlock Grove” and the latest iteration of “Arrested Development” are debuting regularly on streaming services like Netflix, signaling a departure from traditional networks and a sea change in the way television is viewed, Brian Stelter writes. Amazon.com and Microsoft are also commissioning original shows for their millions of subscribers. The shows’ production values now rival those of network television, and their proliferation is seen as a good thing for viewers that may inflame cable companies’ concerns about cutting the cord.

On Tuesday Fox will announce its intention to start Fox Sports 1, an all-sports network that will challenge ESPN’s television sports empire, by this August, Richard Sandomi and Amy Chozick report. The channel will carry Nascar races, Major League Baseball games, college basketball and football, soccer and U.F.C. fights, as well as studio shows. Fox will join an already crowded market. ESPN’s many offerings, including eight cable channels, radio network, Web sites and ESPN3 broadband network, collectively generate $6 billion annually. And then there are sports channels from NBC, CBS, the Big Ten and Pacific-12 conferences, and Major League Baseball, the National Football League and National Hockey League. Nevertheless, Fox is regarded as asset-rich, with deals in place to broadcast many sporting events, and has already spent months planning to convert Speed, a cable motor sports channel, into Fox Sports 1, and Fuel, another channel, into Fox Sports 2.

New advertising agencies are proliferating in San Francisco, Stuart Elliott! reports. The agencies, often start-ups by people with years of industry experience, have embraced the entrepreneurial spirit of Silicon Valley coupled with a San Francisco independence peculiar to the city’s ad industry. Innovative thinking and offbeat nomenclature are the norm, as evidenced by agencies like Cutwater, Dojo, Eleven, Mekanism, Odopod, Sequence, Signal to Noise and AKQA (for “all known questions answered”).

An advertising campaign for the city of Houston has undergone a makeover, from a focus on celebrities who hail from that city to the lesser-known chefs, restaurateurs, artists, designers, actors, musicians and curators who make the city vibrant, Stuart Elliott writes. The campaign, called “Houston Is,” replaces the “My Houston” campaign, which has run for five years. The campaign,produced internally at the Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau and with an estimated budget of $440,000, will sell the Houston by celebrating the Houstonians who are the driving forces behind the restaurants, museums, galleries and other attractions.

The Walt Disney Company plans to offer advertisers guarantees for video programming from ABC, ABC Family and ESPN distributed both online and on television, Bill Carter reports. ABC has aggressively sought a way to gather data necessary to make predictions for both television and online viewing. Television networks traditionally guarantee advertisers that they will deliver a certain number of viewers in specific demographic groups and provide free advertising if viewership falls short of the guarantees. Online viewing has lacked a service that could provide specific data about audiences â€" Nielsen i! s now usi! ng data from Facebook to help identify viewer makeup for shows.