Fox Sports Midwest

Fox Sports Midwest is an American regional sports network that is owned by Diamond Sports Group, a joint venture between Sinclair Broadcast Group and Entertainment Studios, 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

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 and rebranded as Fox Sports Midwest on November 1, 1996. 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. 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. 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.
On July 30, 2015, Fox Sports Midwest and the St. Louis Cardinals agreed to a long-term television rights agreement. The new agreement began in 2018 and will run 15 seasons through the 2032 season. The deal will guarantee the St. Louis Cardinals more than $1 billion, including a 30% equity stake in the network.
On December 14, 2017, as part of a merger between both companies, The Walt Disney Company announced plans to acquire all 22 regional Fox Sports networks from 21st Century Fox, including Fox Sports Midwest. However, on June 27, 2018, the Justice Department ordered their divestment under antitrust grounds, citing Disney's ownership of ESPN. On May 3, 2019, Sinclair Broadcast Group and Entertainment Studios bought Fox Sports Networks from The Walt Disney Company for $10.6 billion. The deal closed on August 22, 2019.

Programming

Fox Sports Midwest holds the exclusive regional cable television rights to Major League Baseball games from the St. Louis Cardinals and NHL games from the St. Louis Blues. As the St. Louis region is claimed by the NBA's Indiana Pacers, select games from Fox Sports Indiana are carried, mainly on Fox Sports Midwest Plus, or on the main channel if live Blues coverage is not airing. The channel also broadcasts college athletics, including men's basketball games from the Missouri Valley Conference, St. Louis Billikens and SIUE Cougars, as well as men's and women's basketball games from the Kansas State Wildcats. Until the creation of the SEC Network in 2014, it also screened a substantial amount of Missouri Tigers programming, including select football games, basketball, and occasional Olympic sports telecasts. It still airs weekly Mizzou magazine shows, as well as football and men's basketball coaches' shows. It also filled a similar role for the Nebraska Cornhuskers until they joined the Big Ten Conference in 2012, and like for Mizzou it still airs university-produced ancillary programming for the Huskers.

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