Fox Sports Southwest originally launched on January 4, 1983 as Home Sports Entertainment (HSE), a unit of Warner-Amex Cable. As one of the first regional sports networks in North America….it served as the cable television home of professional and collegiate sports teams throughout Texas, like the Houston Rockets, Dallas Mavs and San Antonio Spurs of the NBA…..and MLB’s Houston Astros and Texas Rangers….then In 1988, HSE became an affiliate of Prime Sports Networks.
Like many Prime Sports-affiliated networks, it shared channel space with other networks on several cable providers in its service area….which most often resulting in its programming being restricted to nighttime periods until the early 1990’s….when cable systems began upgrading their head-end infrastructures to increase channel capacity….and thus reassigning most of the cable channels that shared time with HSE to other channel slots once these upgrades were complete. In 1994, Liberty Media acquired HSE, converting it into an owned-and-operated affiliate of Prime Sports and changing its name to Prime Sports Southwest.
In 1996, News Corporation, which formed its own sports division for the Fox network two years earlier, acquired a 50% interest in the Prime Network from Liberty Media…..and the HSE network was officially re-branded as Fox Sports Southwest on November 1, 1996…. as part of a relaunch of the Prime Network affiliates as the cornerstones of the new Fox Sports Net. The channel was again re-branded as Fox Sports Net Southwest in late 1999…. as part of a collective brand modification of the FSN networks under the “Fox Sports Net” banner.
In 2004, the channel shortened its name to FSN Southwest, through the networks’ de-emphasis of the brand….which was before reverting to the Fox Sports Southwest moniker in 2008…..then in July 2013, News Corporation spun off the Fox Sports Networks and most of its other U.S. entertainment properties into 21st Century Fox.
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….which included Fox Sports Southwest…..however, on June 27, 2018, the Justice Department ordered their divestment under antitrust grounds….while citing Disney’s ownership of ESPN….as ESPN also owns a stake in the Longhorn Network. It is unknown whether the networks will be divested to other parties, or be retained by the proposed “New Fox”…..which will consist of the assets excluded from Disney’s purchase, including the Fox broadcast network, Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network, and the remainder of the Fox Sports division.
This video seen herewith is an NBA Game of the Week coverage of a regular season NBA game between the Houston Rockets verses the Dallas Mavericks….as this video is the halftime show…..which was hosted by the popular longtime sportscaster Norm Hitzges and his partner behind the mike, Allen Stone.
