Fox Sports, Latest Underdog, Takes on ESPN

21st Century Fox has enlisted Canadian sportscasters Jay Onrait and Dan O'Toole in its bid to take on ESPN, the U.S. sports-TV powerhouse. On Aug. 17, when the media company launches its new 24-hour cable channel, Fox Sports 1, Messrs. Onrait and O'Toole will have the difficult but crucial assignment of anchoring an 11 p.m. news and highlights show that goes head-to-head against ESPN's flagship program "SportsCenter."

Building large and loyal audiences for that show and other studio programs will be one of Fox's major challenges as it tries to do what other media companies, including Comcast Corp.'s NBC and CBS Corp., have failed to thus far: mount a serious offensive on ESPN's moneymaking machine. ESPN, which had a three-decade head-start over its competition, generates over $10 billion in annual revenue for majority-owner Walt Disney Co., according to Needham Insights. The biggest assets for any sports network are the live events that in some cases cost billions of dollars to carry. Fox Sports 1 brings to the table programming rights for Nascar races, college football and basketball, and Major League Baseball games starting next year. It will also showcase Ultimate Fighting Championship mixed-martial arts events. But establishing successful news and talk shows is also a critical part of the business. At ESPN, such programming accounted for 43% of the $2.8 billion in ad spending it attracted, including to its sister channels ESPN 2, ESPN News and ESPN Deportes in 2012, according to Kantar Media.