News Corp. Said to Be Considering Rival to ESPN

LOS ANGELES/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Media companies from NBC and Fox to Al-Jazeera are digging deep into their wallets to build new national sports networks and grab a slice of the lucrative market dominated by Walt Disney Co's sports juggernaut ESPN. The networks are chasing the big advertising dollars that flow into live sports programming, plus monthly subscription fees paid by cable operators that are far higher than those for other channels. Just this week, NBC Sports Network outbid Fox for the rights to air England's Premier League soccer. ...

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Return on investment for ESPN's television programming explains the escalation of sports rights fees.

ESPN receives a lot of criticism for their coverage of the NHL as many believe that SportsCenter gives preferential coverage to leagues that have partnerships with the network.