110-451: The cable television network ESPN has occasionally broadcast boxing events over the majority of its history, as part of several arrangements, including contracts with specific promotions and consortiums such as Golden Boy Promotions , Premier Boxing Champions , and Top Rank , as well as Friday Night Fights —a semi-regular series that was broadcast by ESPN and ESPN2 from 1998 through 2015. From 1980 to 1996, ESPN broadcast fights from
220-691: A 4:3 full-screen to a letterboxed format (via the application of the AFD #10 display flag), which occurred on June 1 of that year. WatchESPN was a website for desktop computers , as well as an application for smartphones and tablet computers that allowed subscribers of participating pay-TV providers to watch live streams of programming from ESPN and its sister networks (except for ESPN Classic), including most sporting events, on computers, mobile devices, Apple TV , Roku and Xbox Live via their TV Everywhere login provided by their cable provider. The service originally launched on October 25, 2010, as ESPN Networks,
330-484: A $ 155 million bid (amounting to $ 31 million annually); as a result, it became the first broadcast network to be awarded a national television contract to carry NHL games, which longtime NHL Commissioner John Ziegler had long thought to be unattainable (NHL games had not aired regularly on a national broadcast network – outside of select championship and All-Star games, and time buy basis airings of ESPN telecasts on ABC from 1992 to 1994 – since NBC 's telecast of
440-538: A 24-hour sports channel in January 2004. ESPNU is a subscription television network that launched on March 4, 2005, that focuses on college athletics including basketball, football, baseball , college swimming, and ice hockey . SEC Network is a subscription television network that launched on August 14, 2014, focusing on the coverage of sporting events sanctioned by the Southeastern Conference . Created as
550-420: A black rectangle beginning with the 2004 NFL season , and the team logos would later be replaced with abbreviations in the respective teams' primary colors (the colorized team abbreviations would first be utilized on postseason baseball broadcasts that year). Whenever a team scores a point or a run, the team's score and logo would flash a few times. During baseball broadcasts, the entire banner would flash with
660-544: A co-promotion agreement with Warren's Queensberry Promotions centered upon Tyson Fury , under which ESPN would hold the U.S. media rights to his bouts, and at least two per-year would occur in the United States. The deal was stated to have potential complications on prospects for a rematch against Deontay Wilder (whose last fight ended in a split draw), as Wilder is associated with Premier Boxing Champions (whose rightsholders include Fox Sports , and Showtime —who produced
770-639: A contract that also saw NBC gain the Sunday Night Football package). Six years later, as the league's television contracts for both the National Football Conference (NFC) and American Football Conference (AFC) divisions, and for the Sunday and Monday primetime football packages were up for renewal, Fox placed a bid for $ 1.58 billion to obtain the broadcast rights to the NFC. On December 17, 1993,
880-426: A couple of more." On June 17, 2017, The Ring reported that Top Rank was nearing a two-year deal to air a package of fights on ESPN, citing growing dissatisfaction with cuts to HBO 's boxing coverage that limited scheduling options for fights. As a result, Top Rank declined to give HBO the rights to the then-upcoming Manny Pacquiao vs. Jeff Horn . The partnership was also said to include access to ESPN's archives for
990-572: A critical role in the growth of the British satellite service BSkyB , determined that sports would be the type of programming that would ascend Fox to a major network status the quickest; as a result, Fox tried to attract a professional football package to the network. In 1987, after ABC initially hedged on renewing its contract with the National Football League (NFL) for the television rights to Monday Night Football , Fox made an offer for
1100-501: A five-year deal, beginning in the 2018 NFL season . The deal is reportedly worth an average of more than $ 660 million per year. On May 6, 2019, Fox Sports announced a multi-year broadcast deal with the new incarnation XFL , which went on hiatus midway through its first season, but would return in 2023. In May 2019, Fox Sports partnered with The Stars Group to launch co-branded sports betting operations, including Fox Bet (which offers real-money sports betting where legal), as well as
1210-432: A format optimized for 16:9 widescreen displays, with graphics framed within a widescreen safe area rather than the 4:3 safe area, intended to be shown in a letterboxed format on standard definition feeds. From 2016 until selling its virtual reality division FoxNext to Disney in 2019 , Fox Sports produced a limited number of game telecasts in 360-degree virtual reality , mostly college football. A TV Everywhere login
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#17329495477311320-458: A four-year deal to become the exclusive broadcaster of Top Rank bouts in the United States and Canada. The fights will be distributed through ESPN's television and digital platforms (including Spanish-language ESPN Deportes , replacing Top Rank's program for UniMás , and Canadian rights for ESPN's local partner TSN ), the ESPN+ subscription streaming service, and pay-per-view. ESPN broadcast 18 cards in
1430-832: A joint venture of network operator ESPN Inc. and the ACC. ESPN+ is an American over-the-top subscription video streaming service available in the United States, owned by the ESPN division of the Walt Disney Company, in partnership with ESPN Inc. ESPN launched its high definition simulcast feed, originally branded as ESPNHD , on March 30, 2003, with an Opening Day broadcast of the Texas Rangers and Anaheim Angels . All studio shows based in Bristol and at L. A. Live, along with most live event telecasts on ESPN, are broadcast in high definition. ESPN
1540-408: A joint venture with Fox Sports and TNT Sports to offer Venu Sports , including the three organizations' main linear sports channels and associated media rights, beginning in fall 2024. Additionally, the company plans to launch a "flagship" standalone streaming offering, including the ESPN and ESPN2 linear channels, in late summer or fall 2025. Alongside its live sports broadcasts, ESPN also airs
1650-595: A large number of NCAA football games, creating an opportunity for fans to be able to view multiple games each weekend (instead of just one), the same deal that the NCAA had previously negotiated with TBS. ESPN's breakthrough moment occurred in 1987 when it secured a contract with the NFL to broadcast eight games during that year's regular season – all of which aired on Sunday nights, marking the first broadcasts of Sunday NFL primetime games. ESPN's Sunday Night Football games would become
1760-540: A lead-in to the primetime game and adding the MLB Network -produced Intentional Talk to ESPN2 's daily lineup. On April 12, 2018, ESPN began a supplemental over-the-top streaming service known as ESPN+ . After having last carried national-televised NHL games in 2004, ESPN and ABC agreed in March 2021 on a seven-year contract to televise games, with some airing on ESPN+ and Hulu . The contract also awarded four of
1870-472: A limited array of events not broadcast on ESPN (most notably, the NBA Finals ). ESPN2 was launched on October 1, 1993. It carried a broad mix of event coverage from conventional sports—including auto racing , college basketball and NHL hockey—to extreme sports —such as BMX , skateboarding and motocross . The " ESPN BottomLine ", a ticker displaying sports news and scores during all programming that
1980-476: A multi-year deal to be the sole broadcaster of the IndyCar Series and its subsidiary series Indy NXT . In addition to the broadcast division, Fox Sports Media Group owns other national cable sports channels and a radio network in the United States, which include: Fox Sports Media Group formally announced the replacement of Speed with Fox Sports 1 on March 5, 2013, with the network eventually launching on
2090-501: A national sports talk radio network providing analysis and commentary programs (including shows such as Mike and Mike in the Morning and The Herd ) as well as audio play-by-play of sporting events (including some simulcast with the ESPN television channel). On October 10, 1993, ESPN2 – a secondary channel that originally was programmed with a separate lineup of niche sports popular with males 18–49 years old (with snowboarding and
2200-488: A new betting-themed daily program, Daily Wager , hosted by the network's gambling analyst Doug Kezirian. The program was ESPN's first regularly scheduled program solely dedicated to gaming-related content. On May 14, 2019, ESPN announced a deal with casino operator Caesars Entertainment to establish an ESPN-branded studio at The LINQ Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas to produce betting-themed content. In order to help offset
2310-530: A period during the 1980s, the network had boxing tournaments, crowning champions in different boxing weight divisions as "ESPN champions". The next major stepping stone for ESPN came throughout a couple of months in 1984. During this period, the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) purchased 100% of ESPN from the Rasmussens and Getty Oil. Under Getty ownership, the channel was unable to compete for
SECTION 20
#17329495477312420-442: A phone feature, then after its termination into a Verizon Wireless paid service. Technologies developed for it have since been transferred to the network's successful mobile strategy in the smartphone era. ESPN Classic was a subscription television network that launched in 1995 as Classic Sports Network, founded by Brian Bedol and Steve Greenberg. ESPN Inc. purchased Classic Sports Network in 1997 for $ 175 million, rebranding
2530-583: A planned Top Rank over-the-top service. On June 19, 2017, ESPN announced that it had acquired rights to broadcast Pacquiao vs. Horn, marking Pacquiao's first fight on a non-premium channel, and his first non-pay per view fight since 2005. After a negotiation window with HBO expired, ESPN officially announced that it would broadcast two more Top Rank cards in August, including Vasyl Lomachenko vs. Miguel Marriaga , and Terence Crawford vs. Julius Indongo . On August 26, 2017, ESPN formally announced that it had reached
2640-572: A regionalized basis (usually up to three per week). As part of a six-year renewal of this deal – valued at $ 2.5 billion – in September 2000, Fox Sports became the exclusive over-the-air broadcaster of Major League Baseball, giving it the exclusive rights to the World Series beginning with the 2000 edition , as well as rights to the All-Star Game , select Division Series games and exclusive coverage of
2750-469: A renewed deal; co-founder Bob Arum expressed dissatisfaction at the promotion's previous package for Versus , which featured a large number of low-quality bouts. Arum explained that he would be more likely to deal with ESPN for individual fights rather than a long-term contract, explaining that "I ain't coming to them saying, 'Will you buy this fight or that fight.' We're past that. Give me a couple of dates and let us program them. You like them? Fine, give us
2860-521: A result of a 20-year broadcast partnership between the two entities, the network is a joint venture between the conference and ESPN Inc., which operates the network. Launching on August 22, 2019, the ACC Network is a subscription television network that focuses on the sporting events of the Atlantic Coast Conference as part of a current agreement extending to the 2036–37 academic term as
2970-428: A shared deal with NBC (which had carried the league's telecasts since 1947). Through the deal, which Fox paid a fraction of the amount ($ 115 million) that CBS paid to obtain the rights effective with the 1990 season , Fox would broadcast approximately 16 regular season Saturday afternoon games per season (unlike the previous Baseball Network deal between NBC and ABC) and offered different game broadcasts shown on
3080-532: A slate of regional sports networks with broadcasting agreements that follow league market distribution rules. For example, cable and satellite subscribers in Kansas City, Missouri receive Kansas City Royals games on Fox Sports Midwest, while viewers in Milwaukee, Wisconsin see Milwaukee Brewers games on Fox Sports Wisconsin. The regionalized coverage frequently restricts broadcasts of live sporting events outside of
3190-530: A streaming service that provided a live stream of ESPN exclusive to Time Warner Cable subscribers. ESPN3 , an online streaming service providing live streams and replays of global sports events that launched in 2005 as a separate website, was incorporated into the WatchESPN platform on August 31, 2011. Likewise, ESPN+ was launched in April 2018 as an add-on subscription for $ 4.99 per month. On June 1, 2019, WatchESPN
3300-683: A successor to The Spring League . In November 2021, it was announced that Fox Sports had acquired English-language rights to UEFA national team matches under a six-year deal from 2022 to 2028, replacing ESPN. This includes the UEFA Nations League beginning in June 2022, tournaments such as UEFA Euro 2024 and 2028 , UEFA qualifiers for Euro and the FIFA World Cup, and UEFA-organized friendlies. In January 2022, Fox announced that it would sub-license portions of this package to FuboTV , focusing on
3410-408: A team's home market. In addition to game coverage, the regional networks also air regionally-based news, analysis, magazine, and documentary programming, as well as some common national programming. In some markets, the regional Fox Sports network operates one or multiple overflow feeds that carry additional programs that cannot be carried on the main feed due to event conflicts. On March 31, 2021,
Boxing on ESPN - Misplaced Pages Continue
3520-885: A third year. ESPN ESPN (an abbreviation of its original name, the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network ) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by The Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Communications (20%) through the joint venture ESPN Inc. The company was founded in 1979 by Bill Rasmussen , Scott Rasmussen and Ed Eagan. ESPN broadcasts primarily from studio facilities located in Bristol, Connecticut . The network also operates offices and auxiliary studios in Miami , Orlando , New York City , Las Vegas , Seattle , Charlotte , Washington, D.C. , and Los Angeles . James Pitaro has been chairman since March 5, 2018, following
3630-423: A total of sixteen stations to Fox between September 1994 and September 1996 as affiliation contracts with those stations' existing network partners expired. The NFL television rights and affiliation deals firmly established Fox as the nation's fourth major network . The network's relationship with the NFL would expand in 1997 , when it began airing games and acquired partial ownership of NFL Europe (although
3740-485: A translucent black rectangle, a baseball diamond graphic for baseball broadcasts on the far left, the team abbreviations in white with their scores in yellow boxes (the boxes were white for NFL broadcasts until Super Bowl XXXVI , when the coloring was changed to yellow), then the quarter or inning, time or number of outs, pitch count/speed (used for baseball broadcasts), and the logo of the Fox Sports event property whose game
3850-421: A variety of sports highlight, talk, and documentary-styled shows. These include: Many of ESPN's documentary programs (such as 30 for 30 and Nine for IX ) are produced by ESPN Films , a film division created in March 2008 as a restructuring of ESPN Original Entertainment, a programming division that was originally formed in 2001. 30 for 30 started airing in 2009 and continues airing to this day. Each episode
3960-709: Is a minority owner of The Sports Network (TSN) and the French-language Réseau des sports (RDS). ESPN also has a minority stake in J Sports in Japan. ESPN moved into the sports betting scene in November 2023 with plans to launch their sportsbook app "ESPN Bet" on November 14. In a partnership with Penn Entertainment, ESPN Bet began in 17 states. Once live, ESPN featured betting odds from their own sportsbook on their content. ESPN has been criticized for focusing too much on men's college and professional sports (particularly
4070-497: Is being telecast (such as NFL on Fox or MLB on Fox ) on the far right. Beginning with the 2003 NFL season, the banner was upgraded as part of a new graphics package. At first, the team abbreviations were replaced with team logos, and the scores were rendered in white within black parallelograms. Unlike the previous version, the FoxBox would alternate between a black rectangle and several black parallelograms; however, it reverted to being
4180-575: Is now used by all of ESPN's networks, originated on ESPN2 in 1995. In the late 1990s, ESPN2 was gradually reformatted to serve as a secondary outlet for ESPN's mainstream sports programming. ESPNews is a subscription television network that was launched on November 1, 1996, originally focusing solely on sports news, highlights, and press conferences . Since August 2010, the network has gradually incorporated encores of ESPN's various sports debate and entertainment shows and video simulcasts of ESPN Radio shows, in addition to sports news programming. Since
4290-626: Is one of the few television networks with an all-digital infrastructure. Archived non-HD programming is presented in 4:3 standard definition with stylized pillarboxing . Pardon the Interruption and Around the Horn began airing in HD on September 27, 2010, with the relocation of the production of both shows into the facility housing the Washington, D.C. , bureau for ABC News . ESPN broadcasts HD programming in
4400-640: Is through the eyes of a well known filmmaker and has featured some of the biggest directors in Hollywood. The 30 for 30 film O.J.: Made in America won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 2017 , the first such Oscar for ESPN. Ultimate Fighting Championship signed a five-year contract with ESPN starting 2019 on ESPN and ESPN+ which estimate every quarter 2 event on UFC on ESPN and 6 events on UFC Fight Night on ESPN+. In March 2019, ESPN announced
4510-466: The 1975 Stanley Cup Finals , as networks were not willing to commit to broadcasting a large number of games due to low viewership). Again, Fox outbid CBS , which wanted to secure the rights as a result of losing the NFL to Fox, for the NHL package. Fox lost the NHL rights to ABC Sports and ESPN in 1999 . On November 7, 1995, Fox was awarded partial broadcast rights to Major League Baseball (MLB) games, in
Boxing on ESPN - Misplaced Pages Continue
4620-528: The 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cup . In February 2015, Fox's contract was extended to 2026 (which was ultimately awarded to a joint North American bid led by the United States), in what was reported to be compensation for the rescheduling of the 2022 tournament to late-November/mid-December (which will compete with the regular seasons of the NFL). On August 6, 2013, Fox Sports announced a 12-year deal to broadcast
4730-422: The 720p resolution format, because ABC executives proposed a progressive scan signal that resolves fluid and high-speed motion in sports better, particularly during slow-motion replays. The network's Digital Center itself natively holds 2160p UHD/4K operations and equipment. In 2011, ESPNHD began to downplay its distinct promotional logo in preparation for the conversion of its standard definition feed from
4840-590: The American Athletic Conference , Big 12 Conference , Mid-American Conference , Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference , Sun Belt Conference and the Western Athletic Conference . ESPN distributes various content on Snapchat Discover, including a Snapchat-only version of SportsCenter . ESPN MVP (initially known as Mobile ESPN) was a 2005 attempt at operating a mobile virtual network operator with exclusive mobile content, first as
4950-801: The Big Ten Conference Championship through 2016 (as part of Fox Sports' involvement with the Big Ten Network ), and the Pac-12 Championship through 2017 on an alternating basis with ESPN. With the replacement of the BCS with the College Football Playoff , Fox lost the broadcasting rights to the 2015 Cotton Bowl Classic onwards again to ESPN. In May 2010, Fox aired the final of the UEFA Champions League , marking
5060-535: The Daytona 500 and Pepsi 400 alternated annually, with Fox airing the 500 in odd-numbered years, and the 400 in even-numbered years. Fox's first telecast was the 2001 Daytona 500 —an event that would be marred by a final-lap crash that resulted in the death of Dale Earnhardt . Later that year, Fox acquired the motorsports cable network Speedvision , and rebranded it in February 2002 as Speed Channel. Fox intended to use
5170-513: The League Championship Series . Under a clause in the contract (which has not been exercised as there has not been a labor dispute during the term of rights while Fox Sports has held the contract), if some of the scheduled games were cancelled by a strike or lockout, Fox would still pay Major League Baseball for a full slate of annual games, while the league in turn had to compensate Fox with additional telecasts. In 1998, Fox obtained
5280-450: The NFL Draft , bringing it also to a mass audience and over time creating a television "event". That same month the network began broadcasting Top Rank Boxing on ESPN , marking the beginning of its involvement with televised professional boxing . The show lasted 16 years, and ESPN has since shown boxing live intermittently with other shows including ESPN Friday Night Fights and others. For
5390-733: The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences . Fox Sports (United States) Fox Sports , stylized in all caps , is the sports programming division of the Fox Corporation that is responsible for sports broadcasts carried by the Fox broadcast network, Fox Sports 1 (FS1), Fox Sports 2 (FS2), and the Fox Sports Radio network. The division was formed in 1994 with Fox's acquisition of broadcast rights to National Football League (NFL) games. In subsequent years, Fox has televised
5500-644: The National Hockey League (NHL) ( 1994 – 1999 ), Major League Baseball (MLB) ( 1996 –present), NASCAR ( 2001 –present), the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) ( 2007 – 2010 ), Major League Soccer (MLS) ( 2003 – 2011 , 2015 –present), the U.S. Open golf tournament ( 2015 – 2019 ), the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) (2016–present), WWE programming (2019–2024), the XFL ( 2020 ),
5610-621: The National League Championship Series that year and NASCAR races with the 2011 Budweiser Shootout . However, NASCAR and MLB broadcasts reinstated their own theme music in 2016 and 2020, respectively, and the CBB on FOX telecasts were switched over to " Roundball Rock ", which was formerly used by the NBA on NBC , in 2019. Fox College Football uses a marching band rendition of the NFL theme, and USFL on FOX , which debuted in 2022, uses
SECTION 50
#17329495477315720-565: The Rose Bowl Game and the 2010 BCS Championship – were excluded from the contract. On November 11, 1999, Fox and sister cable channel FX were awarded rights to the NASCAR Winston Cup Series and Busch Series as part of NASCAR 's first centralized television rights deal, beginning in the 2001 season. The contract covered the first half of the season, with the second half of the season being aired by NBC and TNT . Rights to
5830-582: The Scott Schreer -composed theme, coincidentally or otherwise, echoes the notes for the "giddyup, giddyup, giddyup, let's go" line from the Leroy Anderson -composed song, Sleigh Ride . Although, the rhythm of that segment of both tunes is similar to that of the first four bars of both the first and second figures of the Johann Strauss Sr. -composed Radetzky March , which itself is similar to that of
5940-628: The Sinclair Broadcast Group ), FX Networks , and Fox Sports International . Under the terms of the proposed acquisition, Fox Sports 1 , Fox Sports 2 , and other assets were spun off into the division's current parent company, which is independently owned by Fox Corporation. When the Fox Broadcasting Company launched in October 1986, the network's management, having seen how sports programming (in particular, soccer events) played
6050-765: The Texas Longhorns varsity sports teams of the University of Texas at Austin . It features events from the 20 sports sanctioned by the Texas athletic department, along with original programming (including historical, academic and cultural content). It was discontinued on June 30, 2024, a day before the Longhorns' move to the Southeastern Conference . ESPN owns and operates regional channels in Brazil, Caribbean , Latin America , Netherlands, Oceania and Sub-Saharan Africa . In Canada, ESPN
6160-607: The United States Football League (USFL) ( 2022 –2023), the United Football League (UFL) ( 2024 -present) and the World Baseball Classic (WBC) ( 2023 –present). On December 14, 2017, The Walt Disney Company announced plans to acquire then-parent company 21st Century Fox for $ 52.4 billion, which included key assets such as the regional Fox Sports Networks (which were later sold by Disney to
6270-500: The World Series of Poker as its headliners) as well as serving as an overflow channel for ESPN – launched on cable systems reaching to 10 million subscribers. It became the fastest-growing cable channel in the U.S. during the 1990s, eventually expanding its national reach to 75 million subscribers. Ownership of ABC, and thus control of ESPN, was acquired by Capital Cities Communications in 1985. ESPN's parent company renamed themselves as Capital Cities/ABC Inc. Capital Cities/ABC Inc.
6380-553: The aspect ratio of HDTV sets. Fox Sports began producing selected events in 720p high definition, starting on July 3, 2004, with the Pepsi 400 , select NFL games, the 2004 Major League Baseball All-Star Game , and that year's postseason. During the following years, Fox would produce more sports telecasts in HD, but still fell back on using 480p widescreen for events not televised in HD. As of late July 2010, all sports programming broadcast by Fox-owned networks began transitioning to
6490-403: The "exclusive beer advertised on the network". ESPN launched on September 7, 1979, beginning with the first telecast of what would become the channel's flagship program, SportsCenter . Taped in front of a small live audience inside the Bristol studios, it was broadcast to 1.4 million cable subscribers throughout the United States. ESPN's next big step forward came when the channel acquired
6600-514: The 2001 scoring banners and graphics in 2004 until the network's coverage of that year 's postseason. During NASCAR telecasts from 2007 to 2011, this graphics package was briefly used to weather delay updates and also used for merchandise for the Digger cam. This graphics package was also used during Prelude to the Dream at Eldora from 2005 to 2007. Beginning with the 2006 NFL season, the scoring banner
6710-612: The 2013 cancellation of Highlight Express , programming consists mainly of rebroadcasts of SportsCenter . ESPNews also serves as an overflow feed due to programming conflicts caused by sporting events on the other ESPN networks. ESPN Deportes ( Spanish pronunciation: [i.es.piˈen deˈpoɾtes] , "ESPN Sports") is a subscription television network that was originally launched in July 2001 to provide Spanish simulcasts of certain Major League Baseball telecasts from ESPN. It became
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#17329495477316820-423: The Big Ten Conference announced that it had reached six-year deals with Fox Sports and ESPN to hold rights to its football games beginning in the 2017 season, with Fox's package expanding on its involvement in BTN. As part of the contract, Fox's contract to run BTN was extended through 2032. On January 31, 2018, the NFL announced that Fox had acquired the sub-license for its Thursday Night Football package under
6930-408: The Fox Sports Networks rebranded as Bally Sports . For Super Bowl XXXVI in 2002, Fox Sports produced its first telecast in a 16:9, 480p enhanced-definition format marketed as "Fox Widescreen"; while promoted as having better quality than standard definition , and being the first U.S. sporting event produced completely in a widescreen format, it was not true high definition , but still matched
7040-416: The Fox network (which aired its first UFC match in November 2011, the first time that the UFC aired an event on broadcast television), FX and Fuel TV. The contract expired in 2019, with the UFC moving its broadcast rights to ESPN . On October 22, 2011, FIFA announced that Fox Sports had acquired rights to air its tournaments beginning in 2015, including the 2015 and 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup , and
7150-805: The NBA and NFL), and very little on women's sports or extreme sports. Baseball , ice hockey , and soccer fans have also criticized ESPN for not giving their respective sports more coverage. Other criticism has focused on ethnicity in ESPN's varying mediated forms, as well as carriage fees and issues regarding the exportation of ESPN content. Some critics argue that ESPN's success is their ability to provide other enterprise and investigative sports news while competing with other hard sports-news-producing outlets such as Yahoo! Sports and Fox Sports . Some scholars have challenged ESPN's journalistic integrity, calling for an expanded standard of professionalism to prevent biased coverage and conflicts of interest. On October 8, 2019, Deadspin reported that an internal memo
7260-624: The NFL selected Fox's bid and signed a four-year contract with the network to award it the rights to televise regular season and playoff (as well as select preseason) games from the NFC, beginning with the 1994 season ; the initial contract also included the exclusive U.S. television rights to broadcast Super Bowl XXXI in 1997. The deal stripped CBS of football telecasts for the first time since 1955 . Fox also lured commentators Pat Summerall , John Madden , Dick Stockton , Matt Millen , James Brown and Terry Bradshaw as well as many behind-the-scenes production personnel from CBS Sports to staff
7370-545: The Nations League and selected matches from the European Championships. In January 2022, Fox Sports reached an agreement with the New York Racing Association for the rights to the Belmont Stakes , the third leg of the horse racing triple crown , through 2030. On February 6, 2024, Fox Sports announced a joint venture with ESPN Inc. and TNT Sports to offer Venu Sports , including the three organizations' main linear sports channels and associated media rights, beginning in fall 2024. On June 13, 2024, Fox Sports announced
7480-516: The PPV for Wilder and Fury's initial fight). In April 2019, ESPN broadcast its first Top Rank PPV, featuring Terence Crawford against Amir Khan for the WBO Welterweight title. In December 2019, it was announced that a Wilder/Fury re-match had been scheduled for February 2020, and that the PPV would be a joint presentation of ESPN and Fox Sports . The broadcast was largely produced by ESPN staff, with Fox Sports personalities joining those of ESPN. In 1998, ESPN premiered Friday Night Fights ;
7590-440: The Whalers), first rented office space in Plainville, Connecticut . However, the plan to base ESPN there was put on hold because of a local ordinance prohibiting buildings from bearing rooftop satellite dishes . Available land to build their own facility on was quickly found in Bristol, Connecticut (where the channel remains headquartered to this day), with funding to buy the property provided by Getty Oil , which purchased 85% of
7700-496: The backing of ABC, ESPN's ability to compete for major sports contracts greatly increased, and gave it credibility within the sports broadcasting industry. Later that year, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in NCAA v. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma (1984) that the NCAA could no longer monopolize the rights to negotiate the contracts for college football games, allowing each school to negotiate broadcast deals on their own. ESPN took full advantage and began to broadcast
7810-417: The broadcast rights to the Cotton Bowl Classic college football game. In 2007 , Fox began airing most of the games of the Bowl Championship Series , including the BCS National Championship Game , in a deal worth close to $ 20 million per game. Due to a separate arrangement between ABC and the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Association , events in the series that were held at the Rose Bowl stadium – such as
7920-579: The championships of the United States Golf Association (USGA), including the U.S. Open , beginning in 2015. In 2016, Fox began to air NHRA drag racing events—primarily on Fox Sports 1 and 2, and with selected flagship events airing on Fox proper. On May 12, 2014, Fox Sports announced a 7-year deal to broadcast Major League Soccer (MLS). The deal included the rights to air the MLS Cup on Fox in even numbered years. On July 24, 2017,
8030-428: The channel as "ESPN Classic" in 1998. The channel broadcast notable archived sporting events (originally including events from earlier decades, but later focusing mainly on events from the 1990s and later), as well as sports documentaries and sports-themed movies. It was discontinued on December 31, 2021. The Longhorn Network was a subscription television network that launched on August 26, 2011, focusing on events from
8140-423: The company from Bill Rasmussen on February 22, 1979, in an attempt to diversify the company's holdings. This helped the credibility of the fledgling company; however, there were still many doubters about the viability of their sports channel concept. Another event that helped build ESPN's credibility was securing an advertising agreement with Anheuser-Busch in the spring of 1979; the company invested $ 1 million to be
8250-463: The company's sale to Flutter Entertainment , Fox would have an option in 2021 to acquire an 18.5% stake in its U.S. subsidiary FanDuel Group . In June 2020, Fox exited its contract with the USGA and sold the remainder to previous rightsholder NBC. In June 2021, it was announced that Fox would be a minority investor in a new iteration of the United States Football League (USFL), which would operate as
8360-418: The diamond graphic appeared in middle-justification and was slimmed down to just the three main bases, unlike other implements which included home plate. This banner, after first being used for NFL broadcasts in 2006, was eventually expanded to Bowl Championship Series, NASCAR and MLB; baseball telecasts, however, continued to use the late-2005 scoring banners and graphics in 2007. In 2008, Fox NASCAR introduced
8470-432: The extreme sports-focused Fuel TV was rebranded as Fox Sports 2 , a companion network serving primarily as an overflow channel for Fox Sports 1, along with providing supplementary sports coverage. On September 2, 2013, Fox Soccer was replaced by FXX , an entertainment-based sister network to FX with a focus on comedy programming. With the concurrent shutdown and replacement of the network, Fox Soccer's sports programming
8580-444: The final time on May 22, 2015, covering the finals of the 2015 Boxcino tournament. The network announced that it had reached a multi-year deal with Al Haymon 's Premier Boxing Champions to broadcast 11 events per-year on the main ESPN network, primarily on Saturday nights, and an afternoon event on ABC . Joe Tessitore and Teddy Atlas will carry over to serve as hosts. ESPN is one of several major broadcasters that airs fights through
8690-495: The finale of Gioachino Rossini 's overture to his opera William Tell . During sports broadcasts aired during the Christmas holiday season, Fox Sports broadcasts will sometimes acknowledge this fact by seguéing from the one tune into the other during the commercial break outcue. Beginning in October 2010, the NFL on FOX theme became uniform for all Fox Sports properties beginning with
8800-463: The first year of the deal. On August 2, 2018, ESPN announced an extension of the agreement through 2025. The deal would also call for Top Rank to acquire U.S. rights to 24 international cards per-year for broadcast on ESPN+; in September 2018, ESPN and Top Rank acquired rights to cards in the United Kingdom from British promoter Frank Warren —a friend of Arum. In February 2019, Top Rank entered into
8910-547: The former described as a "24/7 news franchise providing around-the-clock coverage through regularly scheduled programs, hourly updates and an information-rich ticker that provides a network agnostic sports event television schedule." Notable personalities on FS1 include Regis Philbin , Mike Tyson , Michael Strahan , Erin Andrews , as well as many others. The international feed of Speed would eventually be replaced with Fox Sports Racing on February 20, 2015. On August 17, 2013,
9020-505: The free football prediction game Fox Sports Super 6 . As part of the partnership, Fox Corporation acquired a 4.99% minority stake in the company for $ 236 million, with an option to increase its stake to up to 50% within the next 10 years. The partnership made Fox the first major U.S. sports broadcaster to establish a sports betting operation, taking advantage of the repeal of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 . With
9130-437: The highest-rated NFL telecasts for the next 17 years (before losing the rights to NBC in 2006). The channel's decision to broadcast NFL games on Sunday evenings resulted in a decline in viewership for the daytime games shown on the major broadcast networks, marking the first time that ESPN had been a legitimate competitor to NBC and CBS, which had long dominated the sports television market. In 1992, ESPN launched ESPN Radio ,
9240-548: The impact of COVID-19 on its business, Walt Disney CEO Bob Chapek indicated during a 4th quarter fiscal year 2021 earnings conference that the company would increase its presence in online sports betting, including in partnership with third parties. In 2023, The Pat McAfee Show moved to ESPN as part of a five-year $ 85 million deal. The show replaced the Noon ET airing of SportsCenter and This Just In with Max Kellerman . Since September 2006, ESPN has been integrated with
9350-836: The network as an outlet for ancillary NASCAR content. In September 2002, Speed Channel bought out ESPN 's contract to televise the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series . Fox lost the broadcasting rights to the Bowl Championship Series to ESPN beginning in 2010 . In response, Fox introduced a Saturday "game of the week" on FX in 2011, featuring games from the Pac-12 , the Big 12 and Conference USA (the rights to which were later assumed by Fox and Fox Sports 1); Fox also signed deals to carry two new championship games created through conference realignments that occurred in 2010 and 2011:
9460-691: The network's NFL coverage. The network's studio coverage originated from the Fox Television Center in Hollywood, California , later moving to the Fox Network Center (located on the 20th Century Fox backlot in Century City ) by 1998. In order to bolster viewership for the NFL telecasts, Fox parent News Corporation decided to strike affiliation deals with broadcasting companies that owned stations affiliated with ABC, NBC and CBS in order to raise
9570-504: The network's first ever soccer broadcast. In August 2011, Fox Sports announced it had reached a seven-year broadcast agreement with the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), ending the mixed martial arts promotion's relationship with Spike . The deal included the rights to broadcast four live events in prime time or late night annually, as well as other UFC programming that would air on various Fox properties, including
9680-547: The network's success, criticism of ESPN includes accusations of biased coverage, conflict of interest , and controversies with individual broadcasters and analysts. Bill Rasmussen came up with the concept of ESPN in May 1978, after he was fired from his job with the World Hockey Association 's New England Whalers . Rasmussen and his ESPN co-founder Ed Eagan, joined by Rasmussen's son Scott (who had also been let go by
9790-467: The package at the same price that ABC had been paying at the time – about $ 13 million per game. However, partly due to the fact that Fox had yet to establish itself as a major network, the NFL decided to resume negotiations with ABC, with the two parties eventually agreeing to a new contract, keeping what was the crown jewel of the league's television broadcasts on that network (where it remained until 2006, when MNF moved to sister network ESPN as part of
9900-412: The partial ownership ended in 2000), an agreement which ended in 2006 when all games were moved to NFL Network ; the by-then renamed NFL Europa closed down the next year . With a sports division now established, Fox decided to seek broadcast rights agreements with other major sports leagues. On September 9, 1994, Fox was awarded the broadcast television rights to the National Hockey League (NHL) in
10010-774: The profile of Fox's affiliate body, which at the time mainly consisted of UHF stations that (with some exceptions) had little to no prior history as a major network affiliate , had weaker signals and largely did not carry as much value with advertisers as the Big Three 's affiliates. During the late spring and summer of 1994, Fox reached separate agreements with New World Communications (a media company controlled by investor Ronald Perelman , which Fox's station group Fox Television Stations would purchase in July 1996) and SF Broadcasting (a joint venture between Fox and Savoy Pictures that purchased four stations from Burnham Broadcasting through separate deals in July and August 1994) to switch
10120-443: The promoter Top Rank through a weekly series known as Top Rank Boxing ; it was an early staple of ESPN's programming in the 1980s. Top Rank and ESPN later broke away from the partnership; Top Rank shifted its focus on targeting Spanish-language audiences in the U.S., while ESPN succeeded the broadcasts with a new series, Friday Night Fights , which would feature bouts from other promoters. In 2009, ESPN and Top Rank began discussing
10230-443: The promotion, which also includes NBC , CBS , their respective cable sports networks, as well as Spike . ESPN aired its last PBC fight in mid 2016. On January 19, 2017, ESPN announced an agreement with Golden Boy Promotions to broadcast Golden Boy Boxing on ESPN . Under a two-year deal, ESPN and ESPN Deportes broadcast 42 Golden Boy-promoted cards, with 18 airing in 2017 and 24 airing in 2018. The contract included an option for
10340-654: The resignation of John Skipper on December 18, 2017. As of December 2023 , ESPN is available to approximately 70 million pay television households in the United States—down from its 2011 peak of 100 million households. It operates regional channels in Africa, Australia, Latin America, and the Netherlands. In Canada, it owns a 20% interest in The Sports Network (TSN) and its five sister networks. Despite
10450-554: The rights to broadcast coverage of the early rounds of the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament . It first aired its games in March 1980, helping bring attention to what is today known as " March Madness ". The channel's tournament coverage also launched the broadcasting career of Dick Vitale , who at the time he joined ESPN had just been fired as head coach of the Detroit Pistons . In April of that year ESPN began televising
10560-921: The series traditionally featured bouts involving both up-and-coming and seasoned professional boxers, along with studio segments covering headlines and developments across the sport. As implied by its title, the program was primarily broadcast on Friday nights, semi-regularly. Ringside commentary was provided by Joe Tessitore and Teddy Atlas ; previous seasons featured boxing analyst Max Kellerman alongside Brian Kenny and sportscaster Bob Papa in Tessitore's role ringside with Atlas. The program spawned spinoffs, Tuesday Night Fights and Wednesday Night Fights . A Spanish-language version, Noche de Combates , aired on ESPN Deportes and ESPN Latin America . Boxers who have fought on Tuesday Night Fights : Boxers who have fought on Wednesday Night Fights : On March 19, 2015, ESPN announced that Friday Night Fights would air for
10670-438: The seven Stanley Cup Finals to both ESPN and ABC. All other nationally televised games would air on TBS and TNT under a separate deal the league struck with Turner Sports the following month. On August 8, 2023, ESPN and Penn Entertainment announced a deal to brand Penn's sportsbooks with ESPN branding. Penn's existing Barstool Sportsbook would be rebranded as ESPN Bet in fall 2023. On February 6, 2024, ESPN announced
10780-402: The sports division of sister broadcast network ABC , with sports events televised on that network airing under the banner ESPN on ABC ; much of ABC's sports coverage since the rebranding has become increasingly limited to secondary coverage of sporting events whose broadcast rights are held by ESPN (such as NBA games, NHL games, and the X Games and its related qualifying events) as well as
10890-427: The sports network had been terminated, among them athletes-turned-analysts Trent Dilfer and Danny Kanell , and noted journalists like NFL beat reporter Ed Werder and Major League Baseball expert Jayson Stark . Further cost-cutting measures taken included moving the studio operations of ESPNU to Bristol from Charlotte, North Carolina , reducing its longtime MLB studio show Baseball Tonight to Sundays as
11000-426: The standard version. By 2001, the score bug was restructured as a banner positioned at the top of the screen, and was simpler than the version used today. It was first utilized that year on Fox's NASCAR coverage with the introduction of a new updated graphics package that was based on the 1998 design; the banner and updated graphics were then utilized on the network's Major League Baseball and NFL telecasts. It featured
11110-413: The television rights to major sports events contracts as its majority corporate parent would not provide the funding, leading ESPN to lose out for broadcast deals with the National Hockey League (to USA Network ) and NCAA Division I college football (to TBS ). For years, the NFL , NBA , and Major League Baseball refused to consider cable as a means of broadcasting some of their games. However, with
11220-516: The tentative date of August 17, 2013. The network would air content from Major League Baseball , the UFC , NASCAR , soccer (including the FIFA World Cup ) and multiple college sports events (including owning rights to Big East basketball and its annual postseason basketball tournament at Madison Square Garden ). The network launched Fox Sports Live as a competitor to ESPN 's SportsCenter , with
11330-498: The theme used on the Fox network's NFL broadcasts are incorporated in iterations of other themes used on Fox Sports broadcasts. Originally, when the scoring bugs are upgraded, the previous versions were retained for one of the division's other properties for about a year; however, this practice ended in 2009. The first score bug was used for Fox's NFL coverage, and was then expanded to the network's baseball and hockey broadcasts. One segment of
11440-439: The words " HOME RUN " and the team's name in the team's color zooming in to the center from both left and right. In late 2005, a new white banner resembling a chrome finish was introduced, and the team abbreviations became rendered in white letters in the team's main color; the new banner debuted on Fox's coverage of the 2005 World Series , and would then be expanded to NFL and NASCAR broadcasts. Baseball broadcasts continued to use
11550-438: Was discontinued with the service's full merger into the ESPN app. ESPN Regional Television (formerly branded as ESPN Plus) is the network's syndication arm, which produces collegiate sporting events for free-to-air television stations throughout the United States (primarily those affiliated with networks such as The CW and MyNetworkTV or independent stations ). ESPN Plus syndicates college football and basketball games from
11660-633: Was required to access the broadcast. In 2017, Fox Sports began to produce selected telecasts in 4K ultra-high-definition television , beginning with selected NASCAR and college basketball events, and for the 2017 season, a college football game per-week. They are primarily available via DirecTV and other supported providers. Fox began televising its Thursday Night Football games in 1080p upconverted to 4K with HLG HDR on September 26, 2019. The graphics and scoring bugs used by Fox Sports have won awards and changed how sports broadcasts are presented on United States television. The opening notes of
11770-511: Was sent to ESPN employees instructing them to avoid any political discussions regarding the People's Republic of China and Hong Kong in the aftermath of a tweet by Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey . ESPN has won 232 Sports Emmy Awards in 35 years of eligibility. In 2024, ESPN apologized for submitting fake names for Sports Emmy award consideration over many years, and returned 37 trophies that had been awarded to ineligible recipients to
11880-416: Was shifted over to Fox Sports 1 and Fox Sports 2. As a result, outside of very rare sports conflicts on both Fox Sports networks, FX no longer carries any sports programming. Fox Soccer's companion premium service, Fox Soccer Plus , continues to exist and supplements soccer coverage on Fox Sports 1 and Fox Sports 2. Prior to its acquisition by the Sinclair Broadcast Group , Fox Sports Networks operated as
11990-463: Was then acquired by The Walt Disney Company in 1996 and was re-branded as Walt Disney Television . Challenges began to appear in the 2000s. ESPN began to shed viewers, more than 10 million over a period of several years in the 2010s even while paying large sums of money for the broadcast rights to properties like the NFL, NBA and College Football Playoff . On April 26, 2017, approximately 100 ESPN employees were notified that their positions with
12100-417: Was upgraded again. This time, real-time scores from around the league were included as a permanent fixture on the extreme right side of the bar, while the banner's coloring changed to the colors of the team currently in possession of the ball (this coloring scheme was seen only on football broadcasts). The banner no longer flashed after the scoring of runs, touchdowns or field goals . During baseball broadcasts,
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