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ESPN2

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For the Australian television channel, seeESPN Australia.For the Latin American television channel, seeESPN 2 (Latin American TV channel).For the Brazilian television channel, seeESPN (Brazil).

ESPN2
ESPN2 logo
CountryUnited States
Broadcast areaNationwide
HeadquartersBristol, Connecticut
Programming
Language(s)English and Spanish
Picture format720p(HDTV)
Downgraded toletterboxed480ifor theSDTVfeed
Ownership
OwnerThe Walt Disney Company(80%)
Hearst Communications(20%)
ParentESPN Inc.
Sister channels
List
History
LaunchedOctober 1, 1993;30 years ago(1993-10-01)
Links
Websiteespnpressroom/us/espn2-livesame-day-tape-event-schedule/
Availability
Streaming media
WatchESPNor ESPN appWatchESPN
(U.S. cable subscribers only; requires login from pay television provider to access content)
DirecTV StreamInternet Protocol television
YouTube TVInternet Protocol television
Hulu Live TVInternet Protocol television
Sling TVInternet Protocol television

ESPN2is an American multinationalpay televisionnetworkowned byESPN Inc.,ajoint venturebetweenThe Walt Disney Company(which owns a controlling 80% stake) andHearst Communications(which owns the remaining 20%).

ESPN2 was initially formatted as a younger-skewing counterpart to its parent networkESPN,with a focus on sports popular amongyoung adultaudiences (ranging from mainstream events to other unconventional sports), and carrying a more informal and youthful presentation than the main network. By the late 1990s, this mandate was phased out, as the channel increasingly became a second outlet for ESPN's mainstream sports coverage.

As of December 2023,ESPN2 is available to approximately 70,000,000 pay television households in the United States-down from its 2011 peak of 100,000,000 households.[1]

History[edit]

ESPN2 launched on October 1, 1993, at 7:30 p.m.ET.Its inaugural program was the premiere ofSportsNight,a sports news program originally hosted byKeith OlbermannandSuzy Kolber;Olbermann opened the show and the channel by jokingly welcoming viewers to "the end of our careers."[2]Launching with an estimated carriage of about 10 million homes, and nicknamed "The Deuce",[3]ESPN2 aimed to be a more informal and youth-oriented channel than parent network ESPN. The youthful image was also reflected in its overall presentation, which featured agraffiti-themed logo and on-air graphics.[4][5]

Its initial lineup featured studio programs such asSportsNight—which host Keith Olbermann characterized as a "lighter" parallel to ESPN'sSportsCenterthat would still be "comprehensive, thorough and extremely skeptical",Talk2—a nightly talk show hosted byJim Romethat was billed as an equivalent toCNN'sLarry King Live,Max Out—an extreme sportsanthology seriescarried over from ESPN, andSportsSmash—a five-minute recap of sports headlines which aired every half-hour. ESPN2 also carried several half-hour, sport-specific studio programs under the2Nightbanner, such asNFL 2Night,NHL 2Night,andRPM 2Night.Event coverage would focus on coverage of mainstream sports popular within the 18–34 age demographic, such as auto racing,college basketballandNHL hockey(where, beginning in the1993–94 season,it aired up to five games per-week under the titleNHL Fire on Ice),[6][7]while also covering atypical sports such asBMXand otherextreme sports.[4]

ESPN2 would also be used to showcase new technology and experimental means of broadcasting events: on September 18, 1994, ESPN2 simulcastCART'sBosch Spark Plug Grand Prixusing onlyonboard camerafeeds. In 1995, ESPN2 introduced the "BottomLine",a persistentnews tickerwhich displayed sports news and scores. The BottomLine would later be adopted by ESPN itself and all of its future properties.[8]

In the late 1990s, ESPN2 began to phase out its youth-oriented format, and transitioned to becoming a secondary outlet for ESPN's mainstream sports programming; telecasts began to adopt a more conventional style, and the "graffiti 2" logo was dropped in 2001 in favor of a version of ESPN's main logo. On-screen graphics (such as the BottomLine) used a blue color scheme instead of red to differentiate them from ESPN. Since February 12, 2007, the ESPN2 brand has been used forstation identificationonly, with all programming using the same on-air presentation and ESPN branding as those on the main network.[9]

Programming[edit]

See also:List of programs broadcast by ESPNandList of ESPN sports properties

Sports events presented on ESPN2 originally tended to be alternative sports such aspoker,billiards,lumberjacking,extreme sportsand, more recently,drum and bugle corps.However, in recent years ESPN2 has broadcast increasingly more mainstream sporting events, includingMajor League Baseballgames, theEast–West Shrine Game,much of the 2006World Baseball Classic,manyMajor League Soccergames,NCAA footballgames,NCAA basketballgames, theW NBA,theArena Football League,regular seasonKHLgames, and Saturday afternoonNASCAR Nationwide Seriesraces. In 2011, ESPN2 also acquired broadcast rights to delayed coverage for someAmerican Le Mans Seriesevents, with series' major events airing onABC.ESPN2 College Football Primetime is a live game presentation ofcollege footballon ESPN2. The channel airs theCanadian Football Leagueplayoffs, including the season-endingGrey Cup,simulcasting from their Canadian partnerTSN.

The channel has also become ESPN's home for tennis coverage. The showpieces are all four of the "Grand Slam" tournaments: theAustralian Open,theFrench Open,Wimbledonand theUS Open.U.S.-based tournaments, including theATP Masters 1000events atIndian WellsandMiami,as well as theUS Open Series,are also broadcast on the channel.

Most of ESPN's soccer output has been broadcast on ESPN2, includingMajor League Soccer,Premier LeagueandLa Ligamatches; the channel also broadcast the United States'FIFA World Cupqualifiers in 2009. ESPN2 formerly broadcast matches of theUEFA Champions League,until rights for that tournament moved toFox Soccerand its sister networks. In 2003, ESPN2 began broadcastingMajor League Lacrossegames. In March 2007, ESPN2 and the league agreed on a new broadcast contract that ran until the 2016 season.[10]

On October 4, 2017, ESPN announced that it had acquired rights to theFormula One World Championship;the majority of the races are carried by ESPN2.[11]

The NHL returned to ESPN in the2021–22 season;ESPN2 primarily serves as a secondary broadcaster during theStanley Cup Playoffs.[12]

ESPN2's former flagship show, the morning sports/entertainment programCold Pizza,achieved minimal success and saw several format and host changes. In January 2006, it was supplanted by the television simulcast ofESPN Radio'sMike and Mike in the Morning(which moved fromESPNews) and moved to a later time slot (10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Eastern Time). In May 2007,Cold Pizzamoved from New York City to the ESPN headquarters inBristol, Connecticutand was renamedESPN First Take.After ESPN became part of a new broadcast contract with the association, ESPN2 also premiered the new daily showNASCAR Now(similar to the previousRPM 2Night,except only focusing on NASCAR) in February 2007.Quite Frankly with Stephen A. Smith,a program that featured interviews with popular sports figures, had averaged extremely low ratings,[13][14]and had also faced several timeslot changes, until it was finally canceled in January 2007.

On August 8, 2018, ESPN2stuntedas "ESPN8: The Ocho"—an homage to a fictitious eighth ESPN channel portrayed in the 2004 filmDodgeBall: A True Underdog Story,dedicated to unconventional and obscure sporting events. The event—which also included airings of the original film— was a follow-up to a similar marathon aired byESPNUthe previous year.[15]

Simulcasting and alternative telecasts[edit]

ESPN2 has also simulcast many game telecasts with ESPN, usually as a part of a"Full Circle" or "Megacast"broadcast, which covers a single event across ESPN platforms with different forms of coverage (such as different camera angles and features). ESPN2 also simulcasts some programming from ESPNews, often during localblackoutsof scheduled national game telecasts, and for a while provided a simulcast ofESPN Deportes' edition ofSportsCenteron Sundays. In return, ESPN2 programming is often seen on ESPN during blackouts of games in certain markets.

ESPN2 also often carriesSportsCenterat times when the broadcast on ESPN is delayed by a sporting event that overruns into one of the program's scheduled timeslots. ESPN and ESPN2 also jointly aired two episodes of a documentary special calledThis is SportsCenter,in which ESPN showed a documentary showing the production of an edition ofSportsCenter,while the finished product aired on ESPN2. The documentary would usually air for two hours, where the first hour would cover the preliminary production of the night's show on ESPN, while ESPN2 aired ESPN's regular programming. The second hour usually spent time atproduction controlwhile covering reaction to the night's developments.

On March 16, 2008, ESPN2 airedCBS-producedcoverage of theSEC men's basketball championship gamein most of the country. Atornadohad damaged the original game site, theGeorgia Dome,causing the remainder of the tournament to be rescheduled and re-located to the smallerAlexander Memorial Coliseum.However, the new, later tip-off time for the SEC championship created a scheduling conflict with CBS's coverage of theBig Ten championship game.As a result, CBS aired the SEC championship on its affiliates in the markets of the teams involved, while ESPN2 aired a simulcast of the game in the rest of the country.[16][17]

ESPN2 has occasionally been used to carry simulcasts of ESPN Deportes' Spanish-language coverage of events, in an effort to promote the channel and improve the availability of the telecasts (as ESPN2 is available in a significantly larger number of homes than ESPN Deportes), while also reducing the need tocounterprogramwith lesser-viewed programs. Examples since 2016 have includedNBA Christmas Day games,the2017 World Baseball Classic(whose English rights were exclusively held byMLB Network), and anInternational Champions Cupgame between Real Madrid and FC Barcelona.[18][19]From the2017 NFL seasonthrough2020,ESPN2 simulcast ESPN Deportes' Spanish-language broadcasts ofMonday Night Footballduring the first nine weeks of the season, including its pre-game showNFL Esta Noche,andESPN Latin America'sSportsCenterfrom Mexico City after the game. ESPN2 had largely scheduled filler programming againstMNFuntil November, when it begins its Monday-nightcollege basketball coverage.[20][21]

In the 2021 season, the Spanish simulcast ofMNFwas replaced withMonday Night Football with Peyton and Eli(colloquially known as the "Manningcast" ), which is hosted byEliandPeyton Manning,and features appearances by other celebrity guests.[22][23][24]

High definition[edit]

ESPN2 broadcasts inhigh definitionin the720presolution format, which was launched in January 2005. In January 2011, the separate ESPN2HD branding began to be phased out, as in May of that year, the channel would shift to using theAFD#10 flag to transmit the channel'sstandard definitionfeed inletterboxedwidescreen,mirroring the display of the high definition feed, with the SD feed eventually phased out to allow downscaling of the HD feed for the standard definition channel.

References[edit]

  1. ^"U.S. cable network households (universe), 1990 – 2023".wrestlenomics.May 14, 2024.RetrievedJuly 28,2019.
  2. ^Hiestand, Michael (August 28, 2007)."Olbermann's career veers onto NFL path".USA Today.RetrievedSeptember 25,2012.
  3. ^"'Dodgeball' director on origins of ESPN 8 ".USA Today.RetrievedJanuary 27,2019.
  4. ^ab"Whether you get it or not, ESPN2 has no tie to the tried and true".Baltimore Sun. October 1, 1993. Archived fromthe originalon October 1, 2012.RetrievedSeptember 25,2012.
  5. ^"Remembering stuff ESPN used to put on TV".SB Nation.Vox Media. January 14, 2013.RetrievedJanuary 29,2016.
  6. ^"For youth-minded ESPN2, casual is in when they're talking 'puck'".Baltimore Sun.RetrievedJanuary 30,2016.
  7. ^"ESPN2 TAKES AIM AT YOUNG, RESTLESS".Steve Nidetz (Chicago Tribune).October 1, 1993.RetrievedFebruary 9,2016.
  8. ^Hiestand, Michael (March 7, 2008)."Dedicated staff keeps close watch on ESPN's Bottom Line".USA Today.RetrievedMarch 27,2008.
  9. ^"The Last Days Of ESPN2".Deadspin. February 1, 2007.RetrievedSeptember 26,2012.
  10. ^"Full News Archive".Major League Lacrosse. Archived fromthe originalon January 3, 2010.RetrievedNovember 3,2013.
  11. ^"Formula 1 says goodbye to NBC, hello to ESPN in 2018".Ars Technica.RetrievedOctober 4,2017.
  12. ^Bucholtz, Andrew (May 2, 2022)."First NHL playoffs under ESPN/Turner deal has all games set for big networks despite NBA, but has potential overflow issues".Awful Announcing.RetrievedMay 4,2022.
  13. ^Quite Frankly... There's No One Watching Your Show
  14. ^Quite Frankly Host Smith Unhappy About Show's Development
  15. ^Steinberg, Brian (August 8, 2018)."Bold strategy, Cotton: Inside ESPN's crazy plans to turn 'The Ocho' into a business".Variety.RetrievedAugust 8,2018.
  16. ^"ESPN2 steps in to televise SEC title game Sunday".ESPN.March 15, 2008.RetrievedFebruary 11,2021.
  17. ^"SEC's TV decision offers a clue about future".sportsbusinessdaily.RetrievedFebruary 11,2021.
  18. ^"Seen on Screen: ESPN2 to Simulcast NBA Christmas Day Game in Spanish; CSN Chicago Reairs Cubs World Series Run".Sports Video Group.December 15, 2016.RetrievedSeptember 5,2017.
  19. ^"Spanish-language 'Monday Night Football' coming to ESPN2".New York Business Journal.RetrievedSeptember 5,2017.
  20. ^"Spanish-language 'MNF' coming to ESPN2".Sports Business Daily.September 4, 2017.RetrievedSeptember 4,2017.
  21. ^"ESPN Deportes picks up Super Bowl Spanish-language rights".SportsPro.RetrievedNovember 5,2018.
  22. ^Patra, Kevin (July 19, 2021)."Peyton, Eli Manning to headline alternate 'Monday Night Football' telecast".NFL.RetrievedJuly 19,2021.
  23. ^"'Manningcast' draws nearly 2 million viewers, but trails traditional MNF broadcast ".ca.sports.yahoo.October 27, 2021.RetrievedOctober 30,2021.
  24. ^"What happened when Marshawn Lynch, Sue Bird, Brady and Brees joined Peyton & Eli on the MNF ManningCast".ESPN.October 26, 2021.RetrievedOctober 30,2021.

External links[edit]

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