ESPN Plus

ESPN Plus
ESPN Regional Television

Type	Subsidiary
Industry	Media
Genre	Sports
Predecessor(s)	Creative Sports Ohlmeyer Communications Corporation
Headquarters	Charlotte, NC
Key people	Pete Derzis, GM, Sr. VP
Services	College sports syndicator
Parent	ESPN
Website	espnplus.com

ESPN Plus, the popular name of ESPN Regional Television, is an American television program syndicator. ERT is based along with sister network ESPNU in Charlotte, North Carolina. Prior to its purchase by ESPN, this sports package's syndicator was known as Creative Sports, which in turn merged with Don Ohlmeyer's self-titled Ohlmeyer Communication Corporation (OCC).

Telecasts

ESPN Plus produces and syndicates the following telecasts:

• Big East Conference football and men's college basketball (starting with the 2008 football season these games are branded as the Big East Network with SportsNet New York as the flagship station)
• Big 12 Conference basketball (under the name Big 12 Network beginning in the 2008–09 season).
• Mid-American Conference football, basketball
• Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference basketball
• Sun Belt Conference football (under the name Sun Belt Network)
• University of Oregon football and basketball (select games under the name Oregon Sports Network)
• Western Athletic Conference football and men's basketball
• Southeastern Conference football and basketball (starting in 2009, taking over for Raycom Sports). It is branded The SEC Network.
• Atlantic Coast Conference football and basketball (effective with the 2011-12 seasons, again taking over for Raycom) and branded as the ACC Network as of 2010. Raycom will sublicense an over-the-air game of the week in football and some college basketball games as well.

Games air on broadcast stations, regional sports networks, and on ESPN GamePlan and ESPN Full Court, both of which are out of market sports packages, and also on ESPN3 (formerly known as ESPN360.com) since 2007.

Since ERT shares its production facilities with those of ESPNU, there are some crossovers in production. Dari Nowkhah, who is also an anchor on ESPNEWS, hosts pregame, halftime, and postgame shows on the ESPN Plus telecasts. ERT also airs Studio 66, named for Big 12 sponsor Phillips 66, as the pregame show before the basketball telecasts. During the conference tournament, it travels to the tournament site.

Former rights

ESPN Plus once had rights to Conference USA football and basketball, Mountain West Conference football and basketball, and Big Ten Conference football and basketball, but has since lost them as detailed below:

• Conference USA - Broadcast rights to C-USA football and basketball games not selected to air nationally on ESPN or ESPN2 are owned by CBS Sports Network.
• Mountain West Conference - Broadcast rights to MWC football and basketball games are now owned by CBS Sports Network and partner channel MountainWest Sports Network. Versus also has rights to MWC football and basketball.
• Big Ten Conference - Broadcast rights to Big Ten Conference football and basketball games not selected to air regionally or nationally on CBS, ESPN or ESPN2 are owned by Big Ten Network. ESPN Plus lost the rights to the new network in August 2007.
• Kansas Jayhawks men's basketball - Broadcast rights for KU basketball games now belong with IMG Sports.

Event organizer

In addition to the syndicated telecasts, ERT promotes a number of special events:

• It organizes the following college football bowl games, which are televised on either ESPN or ESPN2: Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl St. Petersburg, BBVA Compass Bowl, New Mexico Bowl, Maaco Bowl Las Vegas, Bell Helicopters Armed Forces Bowl, and Sheraton Hawaiʻi Bowl and (as of 2010) the Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas. Most of these games (except the Armed Forces, BBVA Compass and Texas Bowls) are usually held before Christmas and until 2006 were branded under the name "Bowl Road Trip," while ESPN telecasts after Christmas were referred to as "Capital One Bowl Week." (As of the 2007 bowl season, however, Bowl Week now covers all non-BCS games shown on ESPN, ESPN2, or ABC.)
• It also organizes the MEAC-SWAC Challenge, a regular season game between teams representing two conferences of historically black colleges and universities in the Division I Football Championship Subdivision.
• It is also behind the following college basketball events: ESPNU BracketBusters, the Old Spice Classic held at ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Florida, the Sonic All-College Basketball Classic in Oklahoma City, the Puerto Rico Tip-Off, the 76 Classic (formerly Anaheim Classic) in California, the Big East-SEC Challenge, the Charleston Classic in South Carolina, the Diamond Head Classic in Honolulu, Hawaii, and the Cancun Governor’s Cup. Most games in these tournaments are shown on ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPNU; those not shown on television air on ESPN3.com.
• In golf, ERT produced the PGA Tour's LG Skins Game and the Champions Tour's Wendy's Champions Skins Game, which aired on ABC and ESPN2 respectively. ERT also organizes the National Golf Challenge for amateur players.
• ESPN+ also produces the Warrior Lacrosse Challenge and NHRA telecasts for ESPN2.

References

Notes

External links

• Corporate site
• ESPN Plus program listing
• MEAC-SWAC Challenge page
• National Golf Challenge