Fox Entertainment Group has announced it is adopting the Panasonic P2 HD format for its 35 owned and operated stations.
Under the terms of the three-year agreement, Panasonic will be the exclusive supplier of certain ENG equipment for Fox O&Os in 26 markets, covering 45 percent of the U.S. television homes. This includes five duopolies in the top 10 markets: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas and Washington, D.C., as duopolies in Houston, Minneapolis, Phoenix and Orlando, Fla.
The agreement includes AJ-HPX2000 2/3-inch P2 HD camcorders, AJ-HPM100 P2 HD mobile recorders, P2 cards, as well as P2 drives and other P2 products.
"We are very pleased to be chosen by Fox, one of our original development partners for P2, to supply its television stations with P2 HD and P2 equipment," said John Baisley, president of Panasonic Broadcast. "This substantial commitment reinforces Panasonic's leadership in high definition.
Currently five Fox stations--WNYW-TV and WWOR-TV in New York City, WTXF-TV in Philadelphia, KRIV-TV, Houston and KTVI-TV in St. Louis, are using Panasonic's P2 SD equipment in their news production operations.
