Fox Sports 1 has never been shy about expressing its intention to take down ESPN. In the past, they've snagged a number of personalities from the network, including Colin Cowherd, Chris Broussard and, of course, Skip Bayless. They've also openly celebrated small victories over The Worldwide Leader in Sports on social media:
Fri (1/20), @FS1's @Undisputed scored its third head-to-head win over SportsCenter, by +28% on viewership (127,000 v 99,000) from 10a-12p ET
And after years of trying, we think it's safe to say that FS1 has finally gotten under ESPN's skin. Because on Tuesday, an article published on ESPN Front Row—a site that claims to tell ESPN's story "from the inside out"—featured some tame but unmistakable trash talking directed at their overly antagonistic competitor.
The theme of ESPN's premise was that FS1 has consistently moved the goal posts in an effort to bump them from their No. 1 spot:
In the article, Mike Soltys, ESPN's VP of U.S. Network Communications, pointed out that FS1 said they expected to knock off ESPN in "two to three years" back in 2013. But that hasn't happened. Not even close. As ESPN points out, they're still beating FS1 by a ratio of almost 5-to-1.
The post also pointed out that Fox's goal to upend SportsCenter hasn't worked out, either, as they're now being beaten by a ratio of 12-to-1 in that department. Additionally, ESPN pointed out how FS1 actually lost ground in the 5 to 6 p.m. ET block after debuting Pardon the Interruption clone Speak For Yourself. And finally, they pointed out that First Take hasn't been bested by Bayless' new show Undisputed despite the massive campaign behind it.
The entire article—which you can read here—is basically one big middle finger from ESPN to FS1. And while ESPN makes some strong points and shows why it's still king, we wouldn't be surprised if FS1 saw it as a small win. If nothing else, they've shown that they're on ESPN's radar.
Now when can we expect FS1's response?
