Editing Fox Broadcasting Company (section)

==Differences between Fox and the "Big Three" networks==

===Network programming===
Fox's programming schedule differs from the "Big Three" networks in several significant ways: the network airs its prime time programming for only two hours on Monday through Saturday evenings and three hours on Sundays, compared to the three hours on Monday through Saturdays (from 8:00 to 11:00&nbsp;p.m.) and four hours on Sunday nights (from 7:00 to 11:00&nbsp;p.m. Eastern and Pacific Time) programmed by the three longer-established networks, ABC, CBS and NBC. This scheduling is termed as "common prime", referring to the programming of prime time content across all of the conventional broadcast networks during the early- and mid-evening hours, while the 10:00&nbsp;p.m. (Eastern) hour is programmed only by the three older networks.

Fox has traditionally avoided programming the 10:00&nbsp;p.m. hour, choosing to cede the time period to its local affiliates for them to program, many of which air local newscasts during that hour; however, some exceptions do exist for select special film presentations, which by virtue of their running time (depending on whether the film's original length, combined with commercial breaks that would be included in the television cut, would exceed a traditional two-hour broadcast timeslot) must spill over into the 10:00&nbsp;p.m. hour, overruns from live sports telecasts scheduled to air during prime time and new primetime entertainment programming after primetime (6:30 pm ET) [[NFL playoffs|NFL playoff]] games. However, the network did regularly schedule programming in the 10:00&nbsp;p.m. hour on Sunday nights from September 1989 to September 1993 (when that specific time period was turned back over to its affiliates),<ref>{{cite web|title=Right On Schedule: FOX Sundays (1988–1989)|url=http://thiswastv.com/2013/01/09/right-on-schedule-fox-sundays-1988-1989/|first=Anthony|last=Strand|website=This Was TV|date=January 9, 2013|access-date=June 26, 2015|archive-date=April 17, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210417123756/https://thiswastv.com/2013/01/09/right-on-schedule-fox-sundays-1988-1989/|url-status=dead}}</ref> although it never added programming at that hour on any other night. Fox's original reason for the reduced number of prime time hours was to avoid fulfilling FCC requirements in effect at the time to be considered a network,<ref>{{cite news|title=The Media Business; No Newscast, but Plenty of Good News for Fox|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/05/25/business/the-media-business-no-newscast-but-plenty-of-good-news-for-fox.html|first=Elizabeth|last=Kolbert|newspaper=The New York Times|date=May 25, 1994|access-date=June 27, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=UCLA TV Violence Monitoring Project: Operating Premises and Stipulations |url=http://www.digitalcenter.org/webreport94/iie.htm |website=DigitalCenter.org |access-date=June 17, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100716221601/http://www.digitalcenter.org/webreport94/iie.htm |archive-date=July 16, 2010 }}</ref> and to be free of resulting regulations, although these rules have since been relaxed.

Despite being a major network, in addition to not carrying national morning and evening newscasts, Fox also does not air any network [[daytime television|daytime]] programming (such as soap operas, game shows or talk shows). Because of this, the network's owned-and-operated stations and affiliates handle the responsibility of programming daytime hours with syndicated or locally produced programming (then corporate sister [[20th Television]] distributes several syndicated daytime programs carried by many Fox stations, such as ''[[Divorce Court]]'' and ''[[The Wendy Williams Show]]''; Fox Television Stations also test markets certain series from 20th Television and other syndicators such as [[Warner Bros. Television Distribution]] that are proposed for national distribution on some of its stations).<ref>{{cite web|title=Why Fox is Giving 'Kris' and 'The Real' a Summer Test Run|url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/kris-jenner-talk-show-why-579904|first=Alex Ben |last=Block|periodical=The Hollywood Reporter|date=July 8, 2013|access-date=June 26, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Fox Stations Combat 'Broken' Syndication Biz with In-House Development|url=https://variety.com/2014/tv/news/fox-stations-combat-broken-syndication-biz-with-in-house-development-1201254855/|first=Cynthia|last=Littleton|periodical=The Hollywood Reporter|date=June 30, 2014|access-date=June 26, 2015}}</ref> The network also does not carry network-supplied children's programming on Saturday mornings or late-night programming on Monday through Friday nights. Local affiliates either produce their own programming or run syndicated programs during these time periods. Because of the erratic scheduling of the network's sports programming, many Fox stations choose to run a mix of syndicated programming, infomercials and especially movies to fill weekend afternoon timeslots when a sports event is not scheduled to air.

In addition, from the network's inception, Fox has produced two versions of its program promotions for distribution to the network's stations: a standard version incorporating airtimes based on their broadcast in the Eastern/Central or Pacific/Mountain time zones, depending on the feed used by the station (as those seen during network commercial breaks), and versions with "clean" end tags to allow stations to include local airtime and station information through [[local insertion|graphical insertion]] and verbal continuity by station [[continuity (broadcasting)|promotional announcers]] during the program logo graphic or prime time menu. This practice—which differs from that long used by ABC, NBC and CBS, which only allow their stations to insert logos within their network promotions—was also later adopted by The WB and UPN (and their successors The CW, and to a lesser extent, MyNetworkTV) for use by their affiliated stations. A third cut of these promos exists for national program advertising carried by cable networks (including Fox's sister cable networks), where the wording "check local listings" is placed in the end tag.

Fox is the only broadcast network that currently carries [[adult animation|adult animated]] comedies. This started with ''[[The Simpsons]]'' in 1989. This is followed up by ''[[King of the Hill]]'' in 1997 (until 2009, with the last remaining six episodes airing on syndication, but is set to return to [[Hulu]] for new episodes in 2025), ''[[Family Guy]]'' (which was cancelled twice until being picked up by [[Adult Swim]] for reruns and was brought back by the network in 2005 thanks to home video sales) and ''[[Futurama]]'' in 1999 (until 2003 when it was also picked up by Adult Swim only to be purchased by [[Comedy Central]] for new episodes between 2008 and 2013 and returned for new episodes on Hulu in 2023), ''[[American Dad!]]'' in 2005 (until 2014 when [[TBS (American TV channel)|TBS]] picked up the series), ''[[The Cleveland Show]]'' in 2009, ''[[Bob's Burgers]]'' in 2011, ''[[Duncanville (TV series)|Duncanville]]'' in 2020, and ''[[The Great North]]'' and ''[[Housebroken (TV series)|Housebroken]]'' in 2021. Although the network also aired other adult animated shows like ''[[The Critic (TV series)|The Critic]]'', ''[[The PJs]]'', ''[[Sit Down, Shut Up (2009 TV series)|Sit Down, Shut Up]]'', ''[[Allen Gregory]]'', ''[[Napoleon Dynamite (TV series)|Napoleon Dynamite]]'', ''[[Bordertown (American TV series)|Bordertown]]'', ''[[Son of Zorn]]'' (the network's only live-action/animated hybrid sitcom) and ''[[Bless the Harts]]'', they had no success and were short-lived. However a few of the adult animation shows on Fox like [[The Simpsons]], [[Family Guy]], & [[Bob's Burgers]] managed to stay on the air for 10-35+ years. While ABC, CBS, and NBC have tried to copy the success of Fox with adult animated shows, none were successful.

===News programming===
Within Fox's station body, the quantity of locally produced news programming varies considerably compared to the owned-and-operated and affiliated stations of ABC, NBC, and CBS (which typically carry at least 4½ hours of local newscasts on weekdays and one hour on weekends, which are usually spread across morning, midday, early or late evening timeslots). At minimum, most Fox stations run a late-evening newscast following the network's prime time lineup (at 10:00&nbsp;p.m. in the Eastern and Pacific, and 9:00&nbsp;p.m. in the [[Central Time Zone|Central]] and [[Mountain Time Zone]]s), which typically run 30 minutes to one hour in length; besides the fact that the network's stations have more latitude to air an earlier late-evening newscast since Fox does not program that hour, this stems from the fact that several of its charter stations were already airing prime time newscasts as independent stations prior to the network's launch (such as New York City O&O WNYW, which debuted its 10:00&nbsp;p.m. newscast in March 1967). Most Fox stations also carry a weekday morning newscast of one to three hours in length at 7:00&nbsp;am, as a local alternative to the national morning news programs provided by the "Big Three" networks (though mainly in the case of Fox stations that have a news operation and in a few cases, via simulcasts with ABC-, NBC- and CBS-affiliated stations that operate a Fox affiliate, this is often part of a morning news block that runs for four to six hours on average).

Fox has fewer stations that have an independent news operation than those of ABC, NBC and CBS; {{as of|October 2015|lc=y}}, 70 of Fox's 236 stations (including all 18 [[Fox Television Stations|owned-and-operated stations]]) maintain in-house news departments (compared to roughly {{frac|5|8}}–{{frac|7|8}} of the stations of each of the three other major broadcast networks, whose newscasts are either produced in-house or in conjunction with another station). [[KVVU-TV|KVVU]] (channel 5) in [[Las Vegas]] has the highest weekly total of news programming hours among Fox's stations, at 78½ hours.

Most Fox stations that run a news operation use a newscast-intensive scheduling format that is very similar to an ABC-, NBC-, or CBS-affiliated station which in many cases, may incorporate midday or early-evening newscasts, the latter of which is often extended by a half-hour to compete with the national evening newscasts provided by the "Big Three" networks; some Fox stations except for those owned by Fox Television Stations and those formerly owned by Tribune Broadcasting air their early-evening newscasts only on Monday through Friday nights, due to frequent sports event overruns into that daypart on weekends. The first Fox station to adopt such a scheduling format was WSVN in Miami; upon affiliating with the network in January 1989, WSVN retained its existing morning, midday and early evening newscasts, while moving its late newscast from 11:00&nbsp;p.m. to 10:00&nbsp;p.m. and expanding it to one hour (the station later relaunched an 11:00&nbsp;p.m. newscast in 1995), and expanding its weekday morning newscast by two hours. This type of format was later adopted by the former major network stations that switched to Fox between 1994 and 1996, especially those affected by New World and Burnham Broadcasting affiliation deals. Many Fox stations with upstart news departments often do not run a full slate of newscasts initially, usually carrying only a prime time newscast at first, before gradually adding other newscasts over time.

In many small to mid-sized markets (largely those ranked outside the 50 largest [[Nielsen Media Research|Nielsen]]-designated [[media market|television markets]]), production of the local Fox affiliate's newscasts is outsourced to an NBC, ABC, or CBS station – either due to insufficient funds or studio space for a news department or in most cases, as a byproduct of the station being operated through a legal [[duopoly (broadcasting)|duopoly]] or a [[local marketing agreement|management agreement]] with a major network affiliate (such as with [[Cunningham Broadcasting]]-owned [[WEMT]] (channel 39) in [[Greeneville, Tennessee]], which has its newscasts produced by NBC affiliate [[WCYB-TV]] (channel 5) through a local marketing agreement with Sinclair Broadcast Group). Fox affiliates that outsource their news production to a major-network affiliate often carry a lesser amount of news programming than is possible with an affiliate with a standalone news department due to the contracting station's preference to avoid having the Fox station's newscasts compete against their own in common timeslots (differing from outsourcing agreements between two same-market ABC, CBS, or NBC affiliates in certain areas, in which both stations may simulcast newscasts in the same timeslots). The lone exceptions to this rule currently are [[El Paso, Texas]] affiliate [[KFOX-TV]] (channel 14) and WXIN, which respectively began producing newscasts for their CBS-affiliated duopoly partners using resources from their existing news departments in September 2014 (when new sister stations KFOX and [[KDBC-TV]] (channel 4) consolidated their operations into a single facility) and January 2015 (when WXIN sister [[WTTV]] (channel 4) affiliated with CBS), with the Fox stations maintaining the same amount of news programming that they did beforehand.<ref>{{cite news|title=KFOX-KDBC marriage will change El Paso TV market|url=http://www.elpasotimes.com/business/ci_26620489/kfox-kdbc-marriage-will-change-el-paso-tv|first=Vic|last=Kolenc|newspaper=[[El Paso Times]]|date=September 28, 2014|access-date=June 27, 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://archive.today/20141111160153/http://www.elpasotimes.com/business/ci_26620489/kfox-kdbc-marriage-will-change-el-paso-tv|archive-date=November 11, 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Tribune Readies for Launch of Indianapolis CBS Affiliate|url=http://www.adweek.com/tvspy/tribune-readies-for-launch-of-indianapolis-cbs-affiliate/130874|first=Kevin|last=Eck|website=[[AdWeek|TVSpy]]|date=September 26, 2014|access-date=June 27, 2015}}</ref> Another exception is [[KNPN-LD]] (channel 26) in [[St. Joseph, Missouri]], which has been the smallest Fox affiliate by market size with an in-house news operation since the station's July 2012 sign-on; [[News-Press & Gazette Company]] expanded production of KNPN's newscasts to its sister flagship stations, [[KNPG-LD]] (channel 21) and [[KCJO-LD]] (channel 30), when they respectively joined NBC and CBS in November 2016 and June 2017, though the former also maintained roughly the same amount of news programming before the conversions (KNPN airs morning, midday and early evening newscasts on weekdays and a nightly late evening newscast; all three stations simulcast the first 90 minutes of the morning newscast, while the remainder of KNPN's newscasts air in separate time slots from those seen on KNPG and KCJO).

[[WPGH-TV]] (channel 53) in [[Pittsburgh]] is the largest Fox station by Nielsen market ranking (at #23) that outsources its news programming; NBC affiliate [[WPXI]] (channel 11; owned by [[Cox Media Group]]) has produced the station's 10:00&nbsp;p.m. newscast since 2006, when WPGH shut down its news department following the closure of owner Sinclair Broadcast Group's [[News Central (American TV program)|News Central]] division.<ref>{{cite news|title=Fox affiliate will buy its news from WPXI, lay off 35|url=http://triblive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/regional/s_412726.html#ixzz3eISwS3aU|first=Michael|last=Yeomans|newspaper=[[Pittsburgh Tribune-Review]]|date=January 12, 2006|access-date=June 27, 2015}}</ref> A few Fox affiliates only air syndicated programming in time periods where newscasts would air on other major network stations. The largest Fox station by market size that does not carry news programming is [[WSYT]] (channel 68) in [[Syracuse, New York]] (which discontinued a 10:00&nbsp;p.m. newscast produced by CBS affiliate [[WTVH]] (channel 5) in 2006). In [[Dayton, Ohio]], Sinclair Broadcast Group took the unusual step in August 2015 of adopting ''Fox 45 News'' as its universal brand for its news operation in that market, making it appear as if the news department was operated by [[WRGT-TV]], even though it actually belongs to WRGT's virtual duopoly partner, ABC affiliate [[WKEF]], which Sinclair owns outright (newscasts on WKEF would be branded as "''Fox 45 News on ABC22''"); Sinclair used WRGT over WKEF due to the latter's perennial "also-ran" reputation in the market in regard to their newscast ratings. WRGT and WKEF have since switched to a new branding model in the summer of 2019 involving a 24/7 web news service known as "Dayton 24/7 Now", and in 2021, WRGT's Fox affiliation moved to WKEF's second subchannel (along with a number of other Sinclair or related companies in several other markets), as Sinclair consolidated its network affiliations onto one station in a market to address regulatory concerns.