Friday Night Lights: FOX Sports Southwest Style

* FOX Sports Southwest Expands High School Football Coverage with 6-Hour Friday Night Programming Block

* "HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL FRIDAY" to Feature Red Zone-Style Scoring Highlights from Around the State


* FOX Sports Houston to Live Stream 12 Games Starting Tonight



This Friday night, FOX Sports Southwest will launch one of the most comprehensive blocks of high school football programming ever developed. FOX Sports Southwest and Dave Campbell’s Texas Football magazine, two of the most recognized brands for Texas high school football coverage, are joining forces to own high school football coverage with six consecutive hours of live programming each Friday night.

FOX Sports Southwest High School Football Friday powered by DCTF will travel to one of the state’s marquee games each week and will broadcast live from a set outside the stadium that will include several interactive booths with activities for fans, creating a festive tailgate atmosphere.

The programming block will include a 30-minute pregame show (“Football Friday Live”), a three-hour highlight and update show (“Football Friday Blitz”) and a 30-minute wrap-up show (“Football Friday Overtime”).

Strict rules imposed by the University Interscholastic League (UIL), the governing body for Texas High School athletics, prohibit live broadcasts of high school football games on Friday nights. However, FOX Sports Southwest Football Friday will allow high school football fans in the state to keep up with their favorite teams as the games are in progress.

“Football Friday Blitz” will use correspondents across the state to file reports via Skype from their games. Video highlights will be fed from games as they happen for whip-around coverage. The show also will have the ability to tap into radio game broadcasts for quick updates.

Social Media will play a big role to gather content.   Fans will be encouraged to send in their own updates from games they’re attending via Twitter. A ticker will update scores throughout the program.

The new programming block will lead into two additional hours of high school football coverage on FOX Sports Southwest, which will be anchored by the network's long-running High School Scoreboard Live one-hour statewide highlight show at midnight, and the debut of SportsDay HS, a one-hour radio show simulcast presented by the Dallas Morning News and Sports Radio 1310 The Ticket, Dallas-Fort Worth's top-rated all-sports station.  

FOX Sports Southwest Football Friday was first announced at a press conference/media luncheon at the THSCA Coaching convention attended by over 60 of the state’s high school and media writers. The event generated positive press including: Houston Chronicle Media Notebook, Houston Chronicle high school Notebook, Bryan Eagle, Austin American Statesman, San Antonio Express-News, Dallas Morning News, Star Community Newspapers, and SB Nation Houston, among others.

LIVE HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL WEBCASTS ANNOUNCED
FOX Sports Houston, in conjunction with Legacy Sports Network, will offer 12 live Texas high school football webcasts in 2011 featuring schools from the Houston area and Austin. The games will be streamed on FoxSportsHouston.com and FoxSportsSouthwest.com. The first webcast is set for Thursday, Aug. 25 at 7:00 PM CT when Klein Forest hosts Cinco Ranch.