How to Tell One Fox From Another

Get ready for the digital age, when all things (or at least all channels) seem possible.

In the not-too-distant future, Fox alone may offer a network for every entertainment taste and mood. In addition to its flagship network, home of “The Simpsons” and “The X-Files,” Fox already provides two Fox Sports West channels, Fox Sports Americas, FX (which promotes itself as “Fox gone cable”), Fox News Channel, FXM: Movies From Fox, and the Fox Family Channel, which will be converted into a children’s programming service.

Confused? The network roster gets more complicated with NBC and its cable outlets MSNBC and CNBC, or Disney/ABC, whose alphabet includes ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNews, Classic Sports Network (which ESPN acquired earlier this year), the Disney Channel and Toon Disney, an all-cartoon network the studio will debut in April.

Disney also owns ABC, now a haven for Disney-identified programs, including “The Wonderful World of Disney” on Sunday nights, cartoons every Saturday morning and numerous specials, such as the upcoming “A Magical Walt Disney World Christmas” or last week’s “Disney’s Christmas Fantasy on Ice.”

With new and improved technology offering greater channel capacity, such companies are willing to leverage their valuable trade names to fill the void. While that would seem to pose a risk of diluting existing franchises or even providing too much of a good thing, executives insist there’s no danger as long as each service fulfills its specific mission.

“Haagen Dazs--how many flavors of ice cream do they make--and it’s still Haagen Dazs,” said NBC Television Network President Neil Braun. “As long as they deliver, there can be as many flavors as you want.”

That philosophy has created a certain tension over the years between networks and their affiliated stations, who wanted to be the exclusive provider of network programming and not share the logo or limelight with secondary channels.

Local stations have also fretted about high-profile talent such as Tom Brokaw or Katie Couric turning up on cable networks that help chip away at the viewing pie, just as Fox football commentators John Madden and Terry Bradshaw can be seen yakking away on Fox Sports West.

“All broadcasters would love to see cable go away and have the world all to ourselves, but that’s not the reality,” said Fox affiliates board Chairman Pat Mullen, general manager of WMXI-TV in Grand Rapids, Mich.

“The world changes. When FX came out, there was a great deal of concern that it not be called ‘Fox’ anything because we didn’t want to dilute the Fox brand. That concern hasn’t changed, but the world has changed.”

Industry representatives insist that well-defined channels can reinforce and support their primary networks while offering cross-promotional opportunities. Disney, for example, says Toon Disney--which will feature TV cartoons from the studio’s vast library--won’t in any way undercut the Disney Channel.

“I honestly don’t think there’s any downside” to adding channels, said Disney/ABC Cable Networks President Geraldine Laybourne.

There is pressure, however, for channels that use such brand names to meet viewer expectations. Braun, for example, stressed the importance of MSNBC’s quality out of the starting gate so as not to put NBC News anchors in a bad light by looking “rinky-dink.”

“A brand is not a name or an icon. A brand is a relationship between a product or a service and its consumers. It’s all in the execution,” he said.

NBC actually may have benefited from MSNBC’s timely coverage of Princess Diana’s death, which was fed to many of the network’s affiliates. Meanwhile, Brian Williams--who hosts a prime-time news hour on MSNBC--has furthered his credentials as a news star in that forum and as the likely heir to Tom Brokaw on “The NBC Nightly News.”

That said, Laybourne acknowledged that Disney seeks not to compete with itself where possible. Specifically, the Disney Channel tries to schedule programs at 7 p.m. Sundays that aren’t likely to conflict with “Wonderful World of Disney” on ABC.

“Being relatively new to [Disney] . . . it’s astounding to me the kind of thought that goes on across businesses,” Laybourne said. “What they say about synergy is true.”

A spokesman for MediaOne, one of Southern California’s largest cable operators, said customers “understand and value” the proliferation of channels with recognizable names, adding that such expansion reflects a sign of cable’s maturity.

The trend also underscores how massive companies like Fox and Disney leverage their names and holdings, putting pressure on cable operators and frequently squeezing networks that lack such affiliations off cable systems.

The result has been additional consolidation of ownership, with Disney and Fox buying Classic Sports Network and the Family Channel, respectively, earlier this year. Disney/ABC also has a stake in a number of other networks that target specific programming niches, including Lifetime (geared toward women), E! Entertainment Television and Arts & Entertainment.

David L. Smith, president of entertainment at the research firm Frank N. Magic Associates, said surveys show that viewers are “very democratic” when it comes to having more channels, assuming more choice is always good--allowing them to decide what to watch.

More choices will certainly be available in the children’s programming arena: Once Toon Disney arrives and Fox Family Channel completes its overhaul, there will be five major cable competitors including Disney Channel, Nickelodeon and the Cartoon Network, plus blocks of time aimed at kids on Fox, ABC, the WB network, PBS, CBS, UPN and other services as diverse as Animal Planet and the Game Show Network.

Asked at what point the market becomes saturated, Laybourne--who previously ran front-running Nickelodeon--makes clear that if anyone bails out, it won’t be Disney.

“I think we had just the right amount [of children’s networks] before the Family Channel came in,” she quipped.