Fox Sports adds punch to MyNetwork's telenovelas: the addition of mixed martial arts matches helps network broaden lineup.

FLEDGLING MyNetwork TV was anxious to expand its offerings beyond the Americanized telenovelas it currently presents.

Fox Sports Network was looking for a broadcast--and online--home for the mixed martial arts league it recently bought the rights to.

Key the wedding music: It's a marriage made in media heaven for the two-companies, both of which are units of News Corp. They announced they were linking up last week to share some sports programming--mixed martial arts.

The move comes on the heels of Greg Meidel's appointment as president of MyNetwork TV. His top priority is a retooling of the all-telenovela channel that will bring more diversity to the programming lineup, especially sports. The network isn't pulling the plug on any of the telenovelas yet, only adding other elements to the lineup.

The New York-based International Fight League, Inc. (publicly traded over-the-counter), is the first team-based professional mixed martial arts league. The 12-team league launched its first full season two weeks ago in Oakland.

The move further establishes Fox, and now MyNetwork, as a major player in the expanding world of televised mixed martial arts, the nearly no-holds-barred bouts that have exploded in popularity over the past few years.

The network has aired past events from Pride and Ultimate Fighting Championship, the dominant promoters in the mixed martial arts space, over the past several years, but this is the first large-scale rights agreement for the net.

Fox Sports Net now has multi-year rights to televise 22 one-hour late night event programs produced by the IFL, beginning in the second quarter of 2007, as well as the rights to produce ancillary programming like pay-per-view and video-on-demand events.

"There is an audience out there. It's nowhere near the numbers for the NFL, of course, but when you get outside our core televised sports it's one of the highest-rated things we have," said Bob Thompson, president of Fox Sports Net. "At first when we got into mixed martial arts people thought we were crazy. The sport has come a long way and really cleaned up its act."

The sports network has in the past used mixed martial arts as a counter-programming measure, when other networks are airing NFL games or other live sports draws. But now it could become part of more mainstream programming, depending on when and where MyNetwork opts to play the content.

Significantly, the deal between the fight league and Fox includes Internet rights. Under the agreement, Fox Sports and the IFL will establish a joint venture to manage, maximize and distribute IFL-related digital media rights including via Internet, broadband video and mobile, with access to Fox's digital assets including MySpace.com, IGN and other potential third party digital platforms.

"We liked that we were able to enter into an agreement for a variety of new media and digital rights; we've been unable to do it in the past because other entities had already done something with those rights or preexisting commitments for them," Thompson said.