ESPNews

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ESPNews
CountryUnited States
HeadquartersBristol, Connecticut
Programming
Language(s)English
Ownership
OwnerESPN Inc.
(The Walt Disney Company (80%)
Hearst Corporation (20%))

ESPNEWS (pronounced "ESPN News") is an American digital cable and satellite television network that is owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Corporation (which owns 20%).

Launched on November 1, 1996 and formerly focused on airing sports news, highlights and press conferences, since 2010 the network has slowly become refocused to carry encores of ESPN's various sports debate and entertainment shows, along with video simulcasts of ESPN Radio shows, with press conferences now airing during the day on SportsCenter as the main ESPN channel has increasingly become news-based outside of live sports rather than carrying recorded sports events. ESPNEWS has increasingly been used as an overflow network for programming conflicts on the other ESPN networks. Olbermann is also carried live on ESPNEWS on weeknights if sports coverage on ESPN2 overflows into that show's regular time slot.

As of August 2013, approximately 74,784,000 American households (65.49% of households with television) receive ESPNews.[1]

Format and programming

ESPNEWS is typically offered on the digital tiers of American cable providers, and is considered a premium channel in some areas; satellite providers offer it on their standard package. Some regional sports networks that are not associated with Fox Sports Net had formerly aired ESPNEWS during the overnight or morning hours to provide a pseudo-national sports report to their viewers, and to fill time that would otherwise be taken up by paid programming or other low-rated shows, though as vertical integration has occurred with the sports networks now owned by Comcast (with NBC Sports) and Time Warner Cable, ESPNEWS programming has been dropped from these networks. It still airs overnight on MASN2. If a national ESPN broadcast is blacked out in a particular market, the ESPN broadcast will usually be replaced by ESPNEWS.

The network was formerly simulcast on ESPN during coverage of major breaking sports news before that network expanded SportsCenter into additional daytime slots in 2008; additionally, ABC's early morning newscast, America This Morning, previously ran a highlights segment rundown featuring sports news headlines and highlights of the previous night's sporting events presented by an overnight anchor for ESPNEWS.

ESPNEWS's "bottom line" – a small rectangular area at the bottom fifth of the screen which displays sports scores – was formerly more in-depth than the versions used by ESPN's other networks. It contained not only scores, but also statistics and brief news alerts about the day's sports headlines.

On November 11, 2006, ESPNEWS's 10-year anniversary included a montage of highlights covering the past 10 years in sports and aired SportsCenter at 11 p.m. ET on that same day. Around that time, the network began airing SportsCenter on nights when sporting event telecasts on ESPN and ESPN2, such as college football or baseball, were scheduled to overrun into the timeslots of SportsCenter on ESPN and ESPN2's own sports analysis programs, which until 2010 would be the only incidences in which SportsCenter would be carried over to ESPNews.

XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio both have channels that provide an audio simulcast of ESPNEWS, with the network's television advertisements replaced with radio ads from each service. On February 4, 2008, XM rebranded its channel as "ESPN Xtra",[2] and added radio programs from local ESPN Radio affiliates as well as the audio simulcast of ESPNEWS.

The network switched to a full-screen presentation in June 2010, with the network receiving the BottomLine used on all other ESPN networks in anticipation of the network's prime-time programming being rebranded under the SportsCenter umbrella title.

In August 2010, telecasts of SportsCenter on ESPNEWS increased in frequency, now airing whenever ESPN or ESPN2 were unable to air the program due to scheduling conflicts, along with an afternoon expansion of SportsCenter to ESPNEWS's afternoon schedule rather than rolling ESPNEWS-branded coverage, while ESPN and ESPN2 carry sports talk and debate programming. The Beat (a show showing pop culture and sports action to the tune of a beat) was shown while SportsCenter aired on ESPN at 6 p.m. ET, but it was cancelled in July 2011 and replaced by a rebroadcast of the ESPN2 sports talk program SportsNation. By early 2013, the only other programs featured on ESPNEWS were Highlight Express (a half-hour program showing the previous day's sports highlights, running from 10 p.m. at night to 3 p.m. ET in the afternoon), along with ESPNFC Press Pass, an overnight soccer show. A program titled under the ESPNEWS brand was replaced by SportsCenter. The network also airs programming under the College Football Live banner on Saturday afternoons during college football season, a whip-around program similar to ESPN Goal Line, which gives live look-ins to multiple college football games happening simultaneously.

On June 13, 2013, Highlight Express was canceled due to low ratings and company-wide downsizing, leaving the overnight ESPNFC Press Pass, produced primarily for ESPN International, as the only program on the network that was exclusively broadcast (within the U.S.) on ESPNews;[3][4] that program was removed from the schedule in August 2013, after it was supplanted by a new ESPN2 program simply titled ESPN FC).[5] Additional runs of SportsCenter and other same-day airs of ESPN sports debate or E:60 newsmagazine programming now fill the network's schedule, along with encores such as Friday Night Fights and programming affected by sport pre-emption bump-overs such as Olbermann during the US Open.[6] The highlights and segment package for America This Morning came under the purview of the late-night SportsCenter team from Los Angeles from that day forward.

Use as spillover live coverage

ESPNEWS ran a simulcast of ESPN Radio's Mike and Mike in the Morning from 2004 to 2005; the show moved to ESPN2 in 2006, although it still occasionally airs on ESPNEWS when live sports events (such as tennis' French Open or Wimbledon) air on ESPN2. When ESPN2 televised the 2009 U.S. Open tennis tournament, SportsNation aired on ESPNEWS instead from August 31 to September 11, 2009.

As ESPN Classic's carriage has declined more into specialty cable tiers due to bandwidth conservation concerns and low viewership, along with the fact that ESPN Classic does not yet have an HD simulcast channel, ESPNEWS has become the primary spillover network for situations in which ESPN and ESPN2 carry live sports coverage.

  • The network aired two National Invitation Tournament college basketball games on March 25, 2013 that were originally scheduled to air on ESPN, which instead aired an NBA game telecast between the Miami Heat and the Orlando Magic (a game in which the Heat extended its winning streak to 27 games).
  • Another NBA spillover of the late game of that night's ESPN doubleheader aired partially two days later on March 27 due to ESPN2 already carrying coverage of the 2013 NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Tournament until the first game on ESPN ended, with ESPN having an extended post-game show for the first game due to the Heat's aforementioned winning streak ending at the hands of the Chicago Bulls.
  • Coverage of the NCAA Women's Softball Preliminary Tournament aired on ESPNEWS on May 18, 2013, due to NBA playoff coverage on ESPN and X Games Barcelona coverage on ESPN2.
  • The network's most apparent spillover use has been with the NASCAR Nationwide Series in 2013. On April 26, ESPNEWS carried full live coverage of the Toyota Care 250 at Richmond, due to NBA playoff coverage on ESPN, with the 2013 NFL Draft's second night airing over on ESPN2. The Kentucky 300 on September 21 from Sparta was also moved over to ESPNEWS due to college football games airing on both ESPN networks.
  • On August 31, ESPNEWS aired three college football games, including the Kentucky–Western Kentucky game live from Nashville, presumably due to all other ESPN networks being fully booked for college games at that time. ESPN Goal Line also has been expanded onto further cable systems during new Disney/ESPN/ABC carriage agreements firmed up in early 2013, making the Goal Line simulcast unneeded.
  • ESPN's coverage of Wimbledon was often moved to ESPNews in 2014 due to their coverage of the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

Shows

Former

  • 4 Qtrs (2003–2006)
  • The Beat (2009–2010)
  • Coaches' Corner (aired on Tuesday from 2001–2005)
  • ESPNEWS (1996-2011)
  • ESPNEWS Gametime (2006–2009)
  • ESPNEWS Night Cap (2005–2006)
  • ESPNEWS Postgame (2006–2009)
  • ESPNEWS Pregame (2006–2009)
  • ESPN Radio Primetime (2007–2008)
  • Football Friday (2004–2009)
  • The Highlight Zone (2008–2009)
  • Highlight Express (2010–2013)
  • The Hot List (2003–2009)
  • Mike and Mike in the Morning (2004–2006; simulcast of ESPN Radio show; moved to ESPN2 in 2006, still shown on ESPNEWS when ESPN2 is scheduled to air live sports events; the ESPN2 simulcast is rebroadcast mornings beginning at 10:00 am as of June 2013)
  • NFL Monday Quarterback (aired on Mondays from 2001–2005)
  • The Pulse (2004–2009)

ESPN Radio segment

In 2007, ESPNEWS began broadcasting a half-hour segment of ESPN Radio programming on Sunday mornings. The broadcast includes three commentators (a retired coach, a retired player, and an analyst) to break down the events of the featured sport, while an on-screen graphical list of standings, statistical leaders, and other statistics of the featured sport; the upper-right of the screen shows sports highlights (usually of the player or team of discussion); a fan comment board appears at the bottom of the screen, above the ESPNEWS BottomLine.

High definition

The high definition simulcast feed of ESPNEWS broadcasts in the 720p resolution format and was launched on March 30, 2008.[7] Originally, the layout and graphics were reworked specifically for viewing on widescreen television sets, offering additional content not available on the standard definition feed of ESPNEWS.[8] There were reworked HD sideline graphics, a descendant of the "Rundown" used in overnight versions of SportsCenter on ESPN, which wrapped around the top left and bottom of the widescreen picture. The HD Sideline offered the display of textual information, headshots, news, and scores, while still delivering video highlights in the HD format.

The enhanced format was discontinued in June 2010 and the channel now broadcasts in fullscreen 16:9, with regular gray and red graphics similar to those used by the other ESPN channels. The move was made to "accommodate the high number of SportsCenters that moved to the network during the World Cup".

On May 20, 2012, ESPNEWS switched the presentation of its standard definition feed from 4:3 to a downscaled widescreen letterbox version of the HD feed, becoming the last ESPN network with a HD companion channel to make the conversion to a full-widescreen presentation.

ESPNEWS HD was added to Dish Network on March 18, 2014.

International versions

While not operating under the ESPN name, CTV Specialty Television (which is partly owned by ESPN) operates RDS Info, a French-language sister network to Réseau des sports (RDS) (in turn a sister to the English language TSN), which has a sports news format and ticker similar to ESPNEWS, and carries continuous broadcasts of Sports 30 (RDS's equivalent of SportsCenter). Until October 2011, when RDS2 was launched, RDS Info was also used as a part-time secondary outlet for RDS in the event of scheduling conflicts. It has since served as an occasional tertiary outlet for RDS programming, similar to the role now served by ESPNEWS.

See also

References

  • ESPN Mediakit (2006).[9] Retrieved 2006-02-13.
  1. ^ Seidman, Robert (August 23, 2013). "List of How Many Homes Each Cable Networks Is In - Cable Network Coverage Estimates As Of August 2013". TV by the Numbers. Zap2it. Retrieved August 25, 2013.
  2. ^ "ESPN and XM Satellite Radio to Launch 'ESPN Xtra' Radio Channel" (Press release). PRNewswire via xmradio.com. January 28, 2008. Retrieved January 28, 2008. {{cite press release}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  3. ^ Gosselin, Kenneth (June 13, 2013). "ESPN Cancels Two Shows Aired From Bristol". The Hartford Courant. Retrieved June 14, 2013. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  4. ^ "ESPNFC Officially Launches With Premiere of ESPNFC Press Pass on U.S. Television". ESPN MediaZone. August 15, 2012. Retrieved July 31, 2013.
  5. ^ "ESPN to Launch Daily Soccer Studio Program". ESPN MediaZone. May 14, 2013. Retrieved July 31, 2013.
  6. ^ "ESPN Cancels "Highlight Express" And "Unite," While Schwab, Hoenig Among Layoffs". Street & Smith's Sports Business Daily. June 13, 2013. Retrieved June 14, 2013. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  7. ^ "Disney To Launch HD Networks on DirecTV". Broadcastingcable.com. Retrieved March 28, 2013.
  8. ^ ESPNEWS HD Takes Graphic Approach BroadcastingCable.com. October 15, 2007. Retrieved on December 3, 2007.
  9. ^ http://mediakit.espn.go.com/index.aspx?id=41

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=ESPNews&oldid=632669145"