One of Rupert Murdoch's primary reasons for pursuing the acquisition of Time Warner, Inc. is to bolster Fox Sports 1 into a cable network that can legitimately compete in the national sports programming arena currently dominated by ESPN. And sports, 21st Century Fox president Chase Carey said in a February conference call, is "the most important programming out there and probably gets more importnat as everythimng else fragments. With that in mind, through its Turner Sports unit, Time Warner has two of the more coveteted sports licensing agreements, with rights deals carved with the National Basketball Association and NCAA Men's Basketball. The New York Times has a full analysis of this key merger component here.