Fox Sports World to Televise the Team Roc USA Sevens, the Inaugural U.S. Stop on the IRB's World Sevens Series; Team USA Among 16 Participants in Two-Day Rugby Spectacular.

Sports, Business & Entertainment Editors

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 4, 2004

Sixteen of the world's finest rugby-playing nations will assemble on U.S. soil this month to compete in the fourth stop of the International Rugby Board's (IRB) World Sevens Series, the Team Roc USA Sevens. Fox Sports World, America's global sports channel, will carry live coverage of the two-day event from the Home Depot Center in Carson, California, beginning on Saturday, February 14, at 6:30 p.m. Eastern time/3:30 p.m. Pacific time, and continuing Sunday, February 15, at 5:30 p.m. Eastern time/2:30 p.m. Pacific time.

The World Sevens Series is in the midst of a 2003/2004 tour schedule that started in December and will visit eight major cities around the world, including Dubai (United Arab Emirates), George (South Africa), Wellington (New Zealand), Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Singapore, Bordeaux (France), and London. The World Sevens Series was established in 1997 by the International Rugby Board to develop an elite level of annual seven-man rugby competition, and to also develop the sevens game into a viable commercial product.

This event is a first for USA Rugby and Fox Sports World, as it will be the first time in the seven-year history of the Series that matches will be held in the United States.

"The World Sevens Series is an excellent opportunity to attract new fans to the sport, and to reward devoted rugby supporters in the United States," said David Sternberg, General Manager of Fox Sports World. "As the primary distributor of world-class rugby programming in the U.S., we are pleased to be providing exclusive coverage of this historic event."

"Sevens" is an abbreviated game of rugby that follows the same laws except for the number of players per team and the length of the contest. A sevens team fields only seven players, and each half is seven minutes long, rather than the usual 40 minutes. Much like a game of three-on-three basketball, it's a wide-open contest with lots of action. Participating nations compete for the World Sevens Series Championship by accumulating points based on their respective finish in each of the eight tournaments.

Tickets to the matches in Carson can be purchased by calling [phone] or by logging onto www.usasevens.com.

Fox Sports World is available through affiliated cable systems, and through DirecTV and Dish Network satellite providers. Fox Sports World is affiliated with Fox Sports International, an international sports programming and production entity housed within the Fox Cable Networks Group, one of the major operating units within the Fox Entertainment Group (NYSE:FOX) and News Corporation (NYSE:NWS). For more information, visit Fox Sports World online at www.foxsportsworld.com.