ESPN GamePlan
ESPN GamePlan is an out-of-market sports package offering college football games to viewers throughout the United States.
GamePlan begins on Labor Day weekend and continues through the first Saturday in December. It includes all regional telecasts on ABC, as well as games from various syndicators like ESPN Plus, Raycom Sports and SportsWest, and some local stations like Allentown, Pennsylvania's WFMZ-TV which broadcast locally-produced college football games. Viewers can watch games from their cable or satellite provider or on the ESPN3 broadband Internet service. Subscribers to Internet service providers that have ESPN3 can access GamePlan games for free.
History
In 1992, Showtime Event Television supplemented ABC's airing of regional college football telecasts by creating "Option Play."[1] This allowed viewers to watch games not airing on their local ABC station via pay-per-view. The original cost for a single game was $8.95 (with each additional game costing $1 extra)[2], with the full "season-ticket" package priced between $49.95 and $69.95.[3] The following year, ESPN took over for Showtime and offered the purchase of up to three individual Saturday afternoon blocks for $8.95, as opposed to only a single game. In 1993, the package was renamed "Season Ticket", followed in 1994 by "ABC College Football on ESPN Pay-Per-View." In 1996, the name was again changed to "ESPN GamePlan", as the formation of ESPN Regional Television allowed for additional out-of-market games from conferences such as the Big Ten and MAC to be broadcast. ESPN would also pick up telecasts from other conferences such as the ACC, Big 12, Big East, Conference-USA, Mountain West, Pac-10, SEC and WAC for inclusion in GamePlan.
Schedule
Up to 15 games are provided each week. Some games are joined in progress due to time and channel constraints. In 2007, ESPN GamePlan picked up additional telecasts of the Atlantic Coast Conference and Southeastern Conference shown on Comcast Sports Southeast/Charter Sports Southeast. This change replaced Big Ten Conference games that left ESPN Plus for the new Big Ten Network.
Pricing
As of 2014, the regular season offer is $142, or 4 payments of $35.50. A single day's games is also available for $26.00.[4]
See also
References
- ^ "PPV: the old college try." http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-14372649.html
- ^ "College football to take pay-per-view turn", http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1992-08-19/sports/1992232137_1_two-games-southern-cal-game-games-on-television
- ^ "ABC, ESPN team to tackle college football on PPV", http://variety.com/1993/tv/news/abc-espn-team-to-tackle-college-football-on-ppv-105575/
- ^ ESPN GamePlan on DISH
External links
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