ESPN vs Fox Sports | Aussie Rules Football | 2

Business Wars

Wondery

History, Business, David Brown, Management

4.6 • 13.2K Ratings

🗓️ 2 February 2022

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

It’s the early 1990s and media mogul Rupert Murdoch is out to shatter ABC, CBS and NBC’s stranglehold on American TV and take his Fox network into the TV majors.

To succeed, Fox will need a powerful battering ram and only one will do: the ratings magnet that is the NFL. And having been spurned twice before by the football league, Murdoch’s going to need all his cunning to get the NFL on side. But that's only the first step in a campaign to challenge ESPN’s position as the champion of American TV sports.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, Prime members, you can listen to Business Wars Add Free on Amazon Music.
0:04.6	Download the app today.
0:06.8	Starting this season with ESPN vs. Fox Sports, Business Wars is bringing you new, longer episodes
0:13.4	every Wednesday.
0:14.7	You can look forward to even more inside stories on the most scandalous, outrageous, and intense
0:19.2	corporate rivalries of all time.
0:21.2	820 AM May 18, 1992 London, England.
0:36.2	Trevor East weaves through the guests clogging the lobby of the Royal Lancaster Hotel.
0:41.5	East is an executive at British Broadcaster ITV, and he is out to stop Australian media
0:47.7	tycoon, Rupert Murdiep.
0:50.8	This morning, the 22 soccer clubs behind the newly formed English Premier League will
0:55.5	decide who gets to broadcast their games, and ITV wants those rights badly.
1:02.5	The first Premier League games won't kick off until August, but this alliance of England's
1:07.5	top teams is about to become the biggest league in the biggest sport on Earth and a
1:13.3	TV ratings magnet.
1:16.0	But to win the rights, ITV must deliver a knockout punch to Murdoch's satellite TV service
1:21.9	B-Sky B, and that's what East is about to do.
1:27.6	He sidesteps a tourist and reaches his prey, Premier League boss Rick Perry.
1:33.0	Rick, we've increased our bid.
1:36.4	East Tans Perry the new offer.
1:38.9	Perry's eyes widen.
1:41.0	ITV is offering $481 million over five years.
	...

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