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ESPNews

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

Country

United States

Worldwide

English

720p (HDTV)
Downgraded to letterboxed 480i for SDTV feed

November 1, 1996 (1996-11-01)

WatchESPN.com
(U.S. cable subscribers only, requires login from pay television provider to access content)

Known as "ESPN3" in its planning stages and proposed as early as 1993,[1] the channel launched on November 1, 1996, and originally featured a rolling news format with 24-hour coverage of sports news and highlights. Since 2010, the network has largely shifted away from this format, and now primarily carries television simulcasts of ESPN Radio shows, encores of ESPN's weekday lineup of studio programs, and overflow event programming in the event of conflicts with ABC or the other ESPN networks.


As of November 2021, ESPNews reaches approximately 59 million television households in the United States.[2]

The network aired two 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).

National Invitation Tournament

Another NBA overflow of the late game of that night's ESPN doubleheader aired partially two days later on March 27, 2013 due to ESPN2 already carrying coverage of the 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.

2013 NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Tournament

Coverage of the aired on ESPNEWS on May 18, 2013, due to NBA playoff coverage on ESPN and X Games Barcelona coverage on ESPN2.

NCAA Women's Softball Preliminary Tournament

The network's most apparent overflow use has been with the Nationwide Series in 2013. On April 26, 2013, ESPNEWS carried full live coverage of the Toyota Care 250 at Richmond International Raceway, due to NBA playoff coverage on ESPN, with the 2013 NFL Draft's second night airing on ESPN2. The Kentucky 300 on September 21, 2013 from Kentucky Speedway was also moved over to ESPNEWS due to college football games airing on both ESPN networks.

NASCAR

On August 31, 2013, ESPNEWS aired three college football games, including the –Western Kentucky game live from LP Field in 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 additional cable systems through new carriage agreements struck by The Walt Disney Company in early 2013, making the Goal Line simulcast unneeded.

Kentucky

ESPN's coverage of Wimbledon was often moved to ESPNews in due to their coverage of the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

2014

ESPN's coverage of the Wisconsin v. USC Holiday Bowl was moved to ESPNews in 2015.

ESPN's coverage of the northeast regional NCAA hockey tournament, due to the NCAA Women's basketball tournament on ESPN, NCAA baseball and softball on ESPN2 and NCAA lacrosse and other regional games of the NCAA hockey tournament on ESPN-U in 2018.

Also due to live coverage on ESPN and ESPN2 of the NCAA Women's basketball tournament, ESPNews showed the rest of the day's Miami Open quarterfinal and semifinal coverage that was shown on ESPN2 before primetime coverage of the basketball tournament.

was also carried live on ESPNEWS on weeknights if sports coverage on ESPN2 overflowed into that program's regular time slot.

Olbermann

The network aired Game 6 in the first round of the on April 27, 2018 between the Toronto Raptors and the Washington Wizards due to ESPN airing coverage of the 2018 NFL Draft (which would later shift to ESPN2) and later airing another first-round game between the Indiana Pacers and Cleveland Cavaliers. Additionally, this game was also simulcast on NBA TV using the ESPN feed.

2018 NBA Playoffs

In June 2018, it was announced that six matches through the end of the 2018 season would air on ESPNews, as part of its broadcast arrangement with fellow Disney/Hearst venture A&E Networks and Lifetime.[12]

National Women's Soccer League

Game 3 of the semifinal round of the between the Atlanta Dream and Washington Mystics aired on ESPNEWS due to a college football game (Western KentuckyWisconsin) on ESPN and the third round of the US Open airing on ESPN2. As with the Raptors–Wizards playoff game mentioned earlier, this game was also simulcast on NBA TV using the ESPNews feed including the BottomLine ticker which was displayed above their own ticker.

2018 WNBA Playoffs

, JWill, and Max (September 2021 – present)

Keyshawn

(2008–present)

SportsCenter

ESPN Radio segment[edit]

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 is displayed, 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[edit]

ESPNEWS operates a high definition simulcast feed, which broadcasts in 720p (the default resolution format for The Walt Disney Company's television properties) and was launched on March 30, 2008.[13] Originally, the layout and graphics were reworked specifically for viewing on widescreen television sets, offering additional content not available on the channel's standard definition feed.[14] It utilized reworked HD sideline graphics, a descendant of the "Rundown" used on overnight editions 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 near-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, as part of a new carriage agreement that ended a four-year dispute that removed existing HD simulcast feeds of Disney-owned channels.

International versions[edit]

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) (which in turn, is a sister network to the English language TSN), which maintains a sports news format and ticker similar to that used by 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.


ESPN Star Sports (a joint venture between ESPN International and Star TV) operated an Asian version of ESPNews that was launched in November 2009 in Singapore on Singtel's Mio TV[15] and later expanded to other areas, including Hong Kong, where it was launched in August 2011 on PCCW's Now TV.[16] It was renamed Fox Sports News in 2013, following News Corporation's full take over of ESPN Star Sports, before it was closed down in 2017.

List of ESPNews personalities

SportsCenter

ESPN Mediakit (2006). Retrieved 2006-02-13.

[17]