Westminster Kennel Club and Fox Sports have reached a three-year, worldwide multi-platform media rights agreement to THE MASTERS AGILITY CHAMPIONSHIP AT WESTMINSTER. The announcement was made today by Westminster Kennel Club President Seán W. McCarthy and General Manager & Chief Operating Officer, Fox Sports 1 and Fox Sports 2, David Nathanson. In the first event of the agreement, America's greatest canine athletes will take over prime time on Fox Sports 1, Saturday, Feb. 8 (7-9 p.m. ET), live from Pier 94 in New York City. Subsequent events are scheduled for 2015 and 2016. Additional terms were not disclosed.
The Westminster Kennel Club's first-ever agility trial precedes Westminster's 138th Annual All Breed Dog Show, which will be held in the same location (and also in the evenings at Madison Square Garden) on Monday and Tuesday, Feb. 10-11.
With its live coverage of the agility trial, Westminster and
Fox Sports 1 are teaming up to bring what the American Kennel Club calls "the most exciting canine sport for spectators" to center stage on Westminster weekend. Dogs and their handlers excitedly attack the obstacle course of jumps, tunnels, weave poles, and more in a timed competition in the fastest-growing dog sport in the country.
"Agility is one of the most exciting and rapidly growing events in the dog world," said McCarthy. "We are happy for the opportunity with
Fox Sports 1 to share our inaugural Masters Agility Championship with our Westminster faithful and dog fans everywhere."
"We're extremely pleased to have reached this agreement with the Westminster Kennel Club," said Nathanson. "THE MASTERS AGILITY CHAMPIONSHIP AT WESTMINSTER is a terrific competition that puts canine agility and athleticism on display. It's a terrific complement to the sports, events and programs already featured on
Fox Sports 1 and
Fox Sports digital assets."
THE MASTERS AGILITY CHAMPIONSHIP AT WESTMINSTER is sponsored by Purina Pro Plan. The competition will be open to dogs competing at Excellent or Masters level. That would include both purebred dogs and mixed breeds. The Mixed Breed category is especially significant, bringing non-purebred dogs to a Westminster event for the first time since the very earliest days of its show.
Each dog will compete in two qualifying rounds and the dogs with the highest combined scores based on time and faults will move on to the televised championship finals. Judges will be Andrew Dicker of Reading, England and Lori Sage of Oregon City, Oregon.
The Masters Agility Championship at Westminster
Saturday, Feb. 8
Championship Finals presented live
FOX Sports 1 7-9 pm ET / 4-6 pm PT
For more information about additional coverage of the events via streaming video on the Westminster website, please see:
Westminster on Facebook: WKCdogshow
Westminster on Twitter: WKCdogs
Westminster website:
www.westminsterkennelclub.org
About The Westminster Kennel Club
Established in 1877, The Westminster Kennel Club is America's oldest organization dedicated to the sport of purebred dogs. Its world-famous benched dog show is America's second-longest continuously-held sporting event, behind only the Kentucky Derby. (www.westminsterkennelclub.org)
About
FOX Sports
FOX Sports is the umbrella entity representing 21st Century FOX's wide array of multi-platform US-based sports assets. Built with brands capable of reaching more than 100 million viewers in a single weekend,
Fox Sports includes ownership and interests in linear television networks, digital and mobile programming, broadband platforms, multiple web sites, joint-venture businesses and several licensing partnerships.
Fox Sports includes the sports television arm of the
FOX Broadcasting Company;
Fox Sports 1,
Fox Sports 2; Fox's 22 regional sports networks, their affiliated regional web sites and FSN national programming;
FOX Soccer Plus;
FOX Deportes and
FOX College Sports. In addition,
Fox Sports also encompasses
Fox Sports Digital, which includes FOXSports.com on MSN,
Fox Sports GO, Whatifsports.com and Yardbarker.com. Also included in the Group are FOX's interests in joint-venture businesses Big Ten Network, BTN 2Go and STATS, LLC, as well as a licensing agreement that established the
Fox Sports Radio Network.
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