Broadcasting of sports events events from the 1980s, mainly horse races and so-called minority sports. In the early 1990s this arrangement was shaken up by the arrival of pay-TV in the form of BSkyB. Their dedicated sports channels have since become the only place for some major sports to be seen. Starting in 2006 the Irish company Setanta Sports emerged as a challenger to Sky Sports' dominance of the British pay-TV sports market; however, Setanta's UK channel went into bankruptcy administration and off the air in 2009. Between 2009 and 2013 ESPN made an attempt to challenge Sky Sports before its British operations were
Fox Sports South was originally launched on August 29, 1990 as SportSouth, under the ownership of the Turner Broadcasting System, in conjunction with business partners Tele-Communications Inc. (TCI) and Scripps-Howard Broadcasting. At its launch, the channel held the regional cable television rights to the Atlanta Braves, Atlanta Hawks and Charlotte Hornets. Shortly after Turner completed its merger with Time Warner, SportSouth was purchased by News Corporation's Fox Cable Networks in the winter of 1996; the channel was integrated into the recently formed Fox Sports Net group of regional sports networks, and was officially rebranded as Fox Sports South in the spring of 1997