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 News Corp. is contemplating the launch of a national cable sports network in the U.S., according to a person familiar with the matter, putting it head to head with Walt Disney Co.'s ESPN. 
 
 The media company has been discussing the idea on and off for several months, though it hasn't made a decision. If it does go ahead, such a venture would not launch any time this year, the person said. 
 
 News Corp's Fox Sports unit is already a major player in television sports. Its 20 regional sports networks reach about 75% of homes in the U.S., while Fox also ... ||||| 
 
 News Corp.'s Fox is again weighing starting a national cable sports channel to rival Walt Disney Co.'s ESPN juggernaut but there is no guarantee that such an effort will get off the ground. 
 
 Fox has toyed with the idea of creating a national sports network for more than a decade. It already owns 20 regional sports networks, including Fox Sports West and Prime Ticket in Los Angeles. Its Fox Broadcasting Company has long-term deals for professional and college football as well as baseball and NASCAR. 
 
 A Fox Sports spokesman declined to comment on the renewed speculation about a national sports channel, but people familiar with the matter said there are no immediate plans and dismissed a report in Bloomberg that said the new channel could be launched as soon as late 2012. Given how lucrative its regional channels are, Fox and News Corp. executives have for the most part viewed a national network as a luxury item, not a necessity. 
 
 Though Fox Sports is an established brand, going after ESPN would not be cheap. ESPN and its various spinoff channels have dominated the cable sports space and spend heavily to lock up rights. For example, ESPN is paying an average of almost $2 billion a season for "Monday Night Football." 
 
 NBC's new parent company Comcast Corp. is also looking to compete more aggressively against ESPN with its NBC Sports Network. NBC has the rights to the Summer Olympics in London and will use the games to boost awareness for its channel. 
 
 Sports teams and leagues would no doubt welcome another competitor to ESPN because it would mean one more bidder for rights, which could lead to even higher prices. 
 
 Consumers, however, may not have the same reaction. Cable sports channels are already among the most expensive sources of programming. ESPN, for example, costs cable and satellite operators more than $5 a month per subscriber, according to industry consulting firm SNL Kagan. (USA Network, for comparison, costs just over 60 cents per month per subscriber.) Much of that cost is passed on to the consumer. If another channel emerges and drives bills even higher, there could be renewed calls that high-priced sports channels should be sold as separate packages instead of being bundled into basic cable service. 
 
 "At some point there may be a real move for a la carte programming," warned David Carter, executive director of USC's Sports Business Institute. 
 
 -- Joe Flint 
 
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 Dodgers sale could mean bigger cable bills 
 
 Magic Johnson-led group to buy Dodgers 
 
 Burning questions after Dodgers sale 
 
 Photo: The Bengals battle the Texans. NFL football is among the sports that Fox broadcasts nationally. Credit: Al Behrman/Associated Press ||||| Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. (NWSA) is taking steps to start a national U.S. sports network on cable television aimed at challenging Walt Disney Co. (DIS)’s ESPN, according to people with knowledge of the situation. 
 
 News Corp. is assembling the required rights from pay-TV carriers and sports organizations, said the people, who requested anonymity because talks are private. While a final decision to move forward hasn’t been made, the company is considering converting its Fuel action-sports network to the new channel, two of the people said. 
 
 With a national network, Fox would join Comcast Corp. (CMCSA)’s NBC Sports Network and CBS Corp. (CBS)’s CBS Sports Network in taking on the dominant ESPN. News Corp. last year secured rights to the Pac-12 Conference and Big-12 Conference games and owns 20 regional sports networks. The company in October won TV rights to soccer’s World Cup in 2018 and 2022. 
 
 “The success of all these networks will depend on the quality of their sports rights,” David Joyce, an analyst at Miller Tabak & Co. in New York, said in an interview. “There’s been a lot of competition for those rights and that’s driven up costs.” 
 
 ESPN is well-positioned to withstand competition because of its rights for Monday Night Football and national baseball and basketball games, Joyce said. 
 
 A national sports channel can capture higher affiliate fees from pay-TV providers such as Comcast and DirecTV, according to research firm SNL Kagan. ESPN will command $5.06 per subscriber per month this year, the most of any cable channel, SNL Kagan estimates. 
 
 Dodgers Sale 
 
 That would help pay for sports rights that are growing ever more expensive. Fox, for example, holds rights to broadcast Los Angeles Dodgers games through next year, and exclusive negotiating rights to renew through late this year. The price is likely to go up with the team’s planned sale, for a record $2 billion, to a group led by basketball hall of fame player Magic Johnson and Guggenheim Partners Chief Executive Officer Mark Walter. 
 
 Fuel, a 24-hour action-sports network that carries mixed- martial arts fights, is available in 36 million U.S. homes, according to Fox. 
 
 In addition to Fox Sports Net regional channels and Fuel, News Corp. owns motor-sport network Speed, available in 78 million homes, the Fox Soccer Channel, the Big Ten Network, a partnership with the college sports conference, and Fox College Sports, consisting of Pacific, Central and Atlantic regional networks. News Corp. also shows games on broadcast television through Fox Sports. 
 
 Leverage the Channel 
 
 To compete with ESPN and NBC Sports, Fox will need to make an attractive offer to sports organizations and teams, said Neal Pilson, president of Pilson Communications and former head of CBS Sports. 
 
 “The way you do that is you give a new sports property exposure on the Fox broadcast network and then you put other games on the new channel,” Pilson said. “You leverage the broadcast channel to get product on the cable channel.” 
 
 The new channel could begin service by the end of this year, one person said. The effort is being led by David Hill, the chairman of Fox Sports, one person said. 
 
 News Corp., based in New York, has clearance from some carriers, including DirecTV, the biggest U.S. satellite television provider, two people said. 
 
 Lou D’Ermilio, a spokesman for Fox Sports, declined to comment, as did Darris Gringeri, a spokesman for El Segundo, California-based DirecTV. (DTV) 
 
 News Corp. fell 2.5 percent to $19.74 and Disney dropped 1.5 percent to $43.51 at the close in New York. DirecTV added 1.3 percent to $48.83. 
 
 To contact the reporters on this story: Andy Fixmer in Los Angeles at afixmer@bloomberg.net; Alex Sherman in New York at asherman6@bloomberg.net 
 
 To contact the editor responsible for this story: Anthony Palazzo at apalazzo@bloomberg.net
– Rupert Murdoch's News Corp is looking at launching a national sports channel to rival ESPN, reports Bloomberg. It quotes one insider as saying the owner of Fox News could pull the trigger late this year. The Wall Street Journal, which is owned by Murdoch, quotes an anonymous source (maybe one with an Australian accent?) as saying the company has been seriously kicking around the idea for several months. One difference with the Bloomberg report: The Journal says it would not launch this year. Both reports say News Corp would probably take an existing channel, such as the action-sports network Fuel TV, and convert it into the national channel. The company already has a major player in the field in Fox Sports, but the new channel would be considerably bigger in scope. At the Los Angeles Times, a skeptical Joe Flint says News Corp has been making noises about such a channel for more than a decade, and "there is no guarantee that such an effort will get off the ground."