Fox Sports Midwest

Fox Sports Midwest
Launched	November 1989
Network	Fox Sports Networks
Owned by	Fox Entertainment Group; (21st Century Fox)
Picture format	720p (HDTV); 480i (SDTV)
Country	United States
Language	English
Broadcast area	Eastern and Central Missouri,; Central and Southern Illinois,; Southern Indiana,; Iowa,; Nebraska,; Nationwide (via satellite)
Headquarters	St. Louis, Missouri
Formerly called	Prime Sports Midwest (1989–1996); Fox Sports Midwest (1996–2000); Fox Sports Net Midwest (2000–2004); FSN Midwest (2004–2008)
Sister channel(s)	Fox Sports Kansas City; Fox Sports Indiana
Website	www.foxsportsmidwest.com
Availability; (some events may air on overflow feed Fox Sports Midwest Plus due to event conflicts)
Satellite
DirecTV	671 (SD/HD); Fox Sports Midwest Plus 671-1 (SD/HD)
Dish Network	418 (SD/HD); Fox Sports Midwest Plus 452, 412-40 (SD)
Cable
Available on most cable systems in designated broadcast area	Consult your local cable provider or program listings source for channel availability
IPTV
AT&T U-verse	748 (SD); 1748 (HD); Fox Sports Midwest Plus 747 (SD); 1747 (HD)
Streaming media
Fox Sports Go	www.foxsportsgo.com/; (U.S. cable internet subscribers only; requires login from participating providers to stream content; some events may not be available due to league rights restrictions)

Fox Sports Midwest is an American regional sports network owned by Fox Cable Networks, a unit of the Fox Entertainment Group division of 21st Century Fox, and operates as an affiliate of Fox Sports Networks. The channel broadcasts regional event coverage of sports teams throughout the Midwestern United States, most prominently, professional sports teams based in St. Louis, Missouri.

Fox Sports Midwest is available on cable providers throughout eastern and central Missouri, central and southern Illinois, Southern Indiana, Nebraska, and Iowa; it is also available nationwide on satellite via DirecTV and Dish Network.

History

Fox Sports Midwest logo, used from 2008 to 2012.

The channel originally launched in November 1989 as Prime Sports Midwest, serving as an affiliate of the Prime Network. Originally seen mainly within Indiana, the channel began expanding its cable provider coverage westward in 1994. Following Liberty Media's sale of the Prime Network to News Corporation, the channel became a member of the newly formed Fox Sports Net (then a joint venture between Liberty Media and News Corporation) and rebranded as Fox Sports Midwest on November 1, 1996.^[1]^[2] The channel was then rebranded as Fox Sports Net Midwest in 1999, as part of a collective brand modification of the FSN networks under the "Fox Sports Net" banner; subsequently in 2004, the channel shortened its name to FSN Midwest, through the networks' de-emphasis of the brand.

In the spring of 2006, Fox Sports Midwest obtained the exclusive regional cable television rights to broadcast NBA games involving the Indiana Pacers. This resulted in the channel creating a spin-off regional sports network channel, Fox Sports Indiana, for the primary purpose of airing games from the Pacers and the WNBA's Indiana Fever; Fox Sports Indiana launched on November 1, 2006, at the start of the team's regular season.

In the fall of 2007, Fox Sports Midwest signed an exclusive long-term agreement to broadcast games from the Kansas City Royals (this followed the team's decision to dissolve the Royals Sports Television Network, a regional television syndication service for the team's game broadcasts). On January 24, 2008, the network formally announced that it would spin-off its subfeed for the Kansas City market into a separate channel, Fox Sports Kansas City, to avoid scheduling conflicts with Fox Sports Midwest's St. Louis Cardinals game coverage.^[3] The main St. Louis-based feed reverted to the Fox Sports Midwest moniker that same year.

On July 15, 2010, Fox Sports Midwest signed a new television contract with the St. Louis Cardinals, giving the channel exclusive regional broadcast rights to the team's games beginning with the 2011 season, ending the team's local broadcasts in the St. Louis market on NBC affiliate KSDK (channel 5).^[4]

On July 30, 2015, Fox Sports Midwest and the St. Louis Cardinals agreed to a long-term television rights agreement. The new agreement will begin in 2018 and will run 15 seasons through the 2032 season.^[5] A deal that will guarantee the St. Louis Cardinals more than $1 billion^[6]

Programming

Fox Sports Midwest holds the exclusive regional cable television rights to Major League Baseball games from the St. Louis Cardinals, NHL games from the St. Louis Blues. The channel also broadcasts various collegiate events men's basketball games from the Missouri Valley Conference, St. Louis Billikens, SIUE Cougars , Missouri Tigers; men's and women's basketball, football, volleyball, softball and baseball (all of which are also broadcast on Fox Sports Kansas City and Fox Sports Indiana) as well as men's and women's basketball games from the Kansas State Wildcats (which are also broadcast on Fox Sports Kansas City) and the Nebraska Cornhuskers.

Other services