Long-time Fox Sports executive David Hill is leaving the company to form his own production company. Recently, Hill had been overseeing Fox’s music talent shows, The X Factor and American Idol. He’ll create his own company “Hilly” which will be backed by Fox and produce reality shows, focus on live production among other duties.
Fox, namely Rupert Murdoch, tapped Hill to start Fox Sports and in 1993, shook up the sports media world by obtaining the rights to the NFL, wresting the NFC package from CBS. Fox has held the NFC ever since forcing CBS to get back into the NFL by taking NBC’s AFC package five years later.
Hill brought several innovations to sports television including the live scorebug that began on the NFL in 1994, heightened audio bringing fans closer to the action, cameras embedded into tracks for NASCAR and in front of home plate for baseball.
There were ideas that didn’t work like the NHL glowing puck, the animated Scooter baseball during MLB coverage and the cartoon Digger which was pulled during the 2009 NASCAR season, but you could not fault Hill for trying.
Even with his failures, Hill’s presence at Fox Sports will be felt for a long time. He was present when Fox Sports 1 was created in 2013 and discussed how the network was part of a dream come true. During his tenure, Fox obtained the rights to MLB, NHL, NASCAR, the English Premier League, UEFA Champions League and among other properties
He also extended Fox’s presence into regional sports by creating the Fox Sports Net channels across the country. And while an attempt to make Fox Sports Net a national network did not work, there’s no doubting its success on the local level with rights to several MLB, NBA and NHL teams.
In addition to his work in the United States, Hill also worked for Murdoch in Australia and the United Kingdom creating sports television divisions making Sky Sports in the UK a huge juggernaut.
But his contributions to Fox Sports in the United States is what he’ll be the most remembered here. And as he leaves Fox for his own company, his influences on sports television from the technical side to the on-air talent will be felt for many years.
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