Biased against action sports?

Recently, I received an email from the San Diego Extreme Sports Coalition saying that XETV, home of Fox 6, San Diego didn’t show or mention a single highlight from this past Winter X, even though gold medal winner Shaun White is from Carlsbad, a city which Fox 6 caters to. According to Ric from the SD Extreme Sports Coalition, Shaun received his 7^th gold medal on Sunday of the X Games, and the TV station didn’t touch upon it.

If you are reading this blog, there’s a good chance you know how much Shaun has accomplished—from being one of the best in two sports (skateboarding and snowboarding) to winning a gold in the 2006 Olympic Games, so you would think that his hometown station would be interested in doing a story on him. But, according to Ric, the station not only didn’t mention Shaun, but they didn’t cover the Games as a whole. For the 2007 Summer X-Games, they talked about the Games on air for a few seconds, but didn't show any video and for Winter 2007 there was, again, no coverage.

Ric has sent several emails to different people at Fox 6, asking what the deal was, and the only reply he has gotten was from a senior producer. On his website, Ric says: A letter from their senior producer to one viewer stated that the station's position was that X Games are "not real sports" and are something fabricated by ESPN to raise their ratings and to give the network their own marquee event - in his eyes, nothing more than a publicity stunt for the net.  The station XETV to this day REFUSES to show event highlights and news during both season's games, even with so many local athletes so well known here and around the world.

He goes on to say that Fox 6 has the youngest viewers of any local TV news station in San Diego,so why wouldn’t they air it? Action sports would, obviously, relate to young viewers. As Ric says, “It is a most extreme example of local TV sports news ignoring its own community...”

It makes no sense to me, that’s for sure. To check out the whole story, click here.

 

 

Comments

[Bill Byrne]

There could be another reason they're not covering it. Competitive media don't usually like to give coverage to each other.

While some events, say the Super Bowl or World Series, will be highlighted on all stations, don't expect to see something that's so niche and pretty much a pure ESPN property covered anywhere else.

Similarly, you wouldn't expect the person who blogs for Surf Expo to post about great innovations coming out of ASR. Their interests lie in promoting their own exhibitors, not ASR's.

[Cameron]

Who cares? I can't remember the last time I watched anything on Fox, let alone the news in hopes of catching up on the latest in action sports. That's what FuelTV is for - now if only they'd be a little more current on their news coverage - I swear all the'CT coverage doesn't come until weeks after the events. I believe ESPN also had a special sportscenter during the games where you could catch up on the news, Xcenter??

I also don't care if some fat suit doesn't think action sports are real sports. He's probably just too mad because he can't find a surfboard buoyant enough to float his lardass.

[Bill Byrne]

I think with Fuel, it's a matter of budget for production. They'd probably love to have a sat feed from the CT and show it live, but I don't think they have the resources to do that now.

[alex]

One problem with Fuel is that it's not available to everyone (I don't have it). The good thing about having the coverage on your local station is that it's there for anyone with a TV to see, while ESPN is only available to those who have cable. Bill makes a good point about it being considered competition for the other stations. But, on the other hand, if every other local station mentions the Games you'd think the one with the youngest demographic would too.

[dusty]

I've been pushing for this for a long time, so check this out...fox6.com/surf

[alex]

Wow, that's awesome, congrats! Does this mean the channel is one step closer to covering the X Games, or do you think they'll stay away since it's an ESPN owned event?

[Lee]

Competitive media is the actual explanation. That is evidenced by the fact that Fox Cable networks actually owns Fuel TV.