American Sports Network (ASN) was a sports brand owned by the U.S.

television station A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity, such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the eart ...

owner

Sinclair Broadcast Group Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. (SBG) is a publicly traded American telecommunications conglomerate that is controlled by the descendants of company founder Julian Sinclair Smith. Headquartered in the Baltimore suburb of Cockeysville, Maryland, ...

through its Sinclair Networks subsidiary. Formed in July 2014, the multicast network component of ASN produced broadcasts of sporting events that were aired primarily across stations owned by Sinclair (in particular,

The CW ''The'' () is a grammatical Article (grammar), article in English language, English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite ...

and

MyNetworkTV MyNetworkTV (unofficially abbreviated MyTV, MyNet, MNT or MNTV, and sometimes referred to as My Network) is an American commercial broadcast television syndication service and former television network owned by Fox Corporation, operated by its ...

stations owned and/or operated by the company, or, in some markets, on a digital subchannel of a Sinclair station), and syndicated to non-Sinclair stations and

regional sports network In the United States and Canada, a regional sports network (RSN) is a cable television channel (many of which are also distributed on direct broadcast satellite services) that presents sports programming to a local market or geographical region. ...

s. The multicast network component of ASN primarily dealt in

college sports College athletics encompasses non-professional, collegiate and university-level competitive sports and games. World University Games The first World University Games were held in 1923. There were originally called the ''Union Nationale des ...

from

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest level of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major collegiate athletic ...

conferences A conference is a meeting of two or more experts to discuss and exchange opinions or new information about a particular topic. Conferences can be used as a form of group decision-making, although discussion, not always decisions, are the main ...

, including live football and

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

games from the Atlantic 10 Conference, Big South Conference, Colonial Athletic Association, Conference USA,

Horizon League The Horizon League is an 11-school collegiate athletic conference in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I, whose members are located in and near the Great Lakes region. The Horizon League founded in 1979 as the Midw ...

Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate athletic conference comprising eight private research universities in the Northeastern United States. The term ''Ivy League'' is typically used beyond the sports context to refer to the eight school ...

Mid-American Conference The Mid-American Conference (MAC) is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference with a membership base in the Great Lakes region (North America), Great L ...

Ohio Valley Conference The Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) is a collegiate athletic conference which operates in the Midwestern and Southeastern United States. It participates in Division I of the NCAA; the conference's football programs compete in the Football Cham ...

, Patriot League,

Southern Conference The Southern Conference (SoCon) is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I. Southern Conference football teams compete in the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly k ...

Southland Conference The Southland Conference, abbreviated as SLC, is a collegiate athletic conference which operates in the South Central United States (specifically Texas and Louisiana). It participates in the NCAA's Division I for all sports; for football, it ...

, and

Western Athletic Conference The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) is an NCAA Division I conference. The WAC covers a broad expanse of the western United States with member institutions located in Arizona, California, New Mexico, Utah, Washington, and Texas. Due to mos ...

, as well as a limited number of professional sports events. In 2015, ASN acquired regional rights to

Real Salt Lake Real Salt Lake, often shortened to RSL, is an American professional soccer franchise based in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area. The club competes as a member club of Major League Soccer (MLS) in the Western Conference. RSL began play in 2 ...

and

D.C. United D.C. United is a professional soccer club based in Washington, D.C. that competes in the Eastern Conference of Major League Soccer, the top tier of American soccer. Domestically, the club has won four MLS Cups (league championships), four Supp ...

of Major League Soccer, with games aired on Sinclair stations in the teams' market area, as well as television rights to the newly established

Arizona Bowl The Arizona Bowl is a postseason college football bowl game certified by the NCAA that began play in the 2015 season. The game is held at Arizona Stadium in Tucson, and starting in 2020 has tie-ins with the Mountain West Conference and Mid-Amer ...

. In 2017, Sinclair announced that it would fold the multicast network component of ASN into a new joint venture with

Silver Chalice The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team is owned by Jerry Reinsdorf, and ...

called Stadium, which would combine ASN's broadcast distribution platforms with content from Silver Chalice's digital outlets

120 Sports 120 Sports was an internet television service, operated as a joint venture between Time Inc., Silver Chalice, MLB Advanced Media, and the National Hockey League. The service produced and streamed sports news and highlight content catered towards di ...

and

Campus Insiders Campus Insiders was a college sports website and internet television service. It was owned by a joint venture between IMG College and Silver Chalice. The service was oriented towards live streaming of U.S. college sports, streaming live and replay ...

. ASN-branded multicast programming continued on-air until September 6, when the network formally transitioned on-air to Stadium.

History

Sinclair Broadcast Group formally announced the launch of the American Sports Network on July 17, 2014; the service was led by Doron Gorshein, who joined the company in January 2014 in the role of

chief operating officer A chief operating officer or chief operations officer, also called a COO, is one of the highest-ranking executive positions in an organization, composing part of the " C-suite". The COO is usually the second-in-command at the firm, especially if ...

of Sinclair Networks. ASN carried live broadcasts of mainly collegiate sporting events, along with ancillary programming focusing on colleges, their students and student-athletes. ASN's content aired primarily on Sinclair-owned-or-operated affiliates of

and

or on secondary digital subchannels of other stations run by the company (some of which had carried content from competing syndicated sports distributors

ESPN Regional Television ESPN Events is an American multinational sporting event promoter owned by ESPN Inc. It is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, and shares its operations with SEC Network and formerly with ESPNU. The corporation organizes sporting events f ...

and Raycom Sports until ASN's launch), the latter especially the case for its stations that have primary affiliations with one of the Big Four networks (

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

and

Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

) which would not pre-empt the higher-tier sports coverage provided by their network partners. Sinclair opened ASN up for distribution by other broadcast outlets interested in carrying the service's content, and announced plans to expand ASN onto digital platforms. ASN planned to initially broadcast college football, men's and

women's college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

, women's college soccer, and

college baseball College baseball is baseball that is played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education. In comparison to football and basketball, college competition in the United States plays a smaller role in developing professional p ...

events, beginning with the 2014 NCAA Division I FBS and

FCS football seasons FCS may refer to: Education * Faith Christian School (disambiguation) * Faujdarhat Collegiate School, in Chittagong, Bangladesh * Florence Christian School in South Carolina, United States * Florida College System, in the United States * Foothil ...

. Prior to the service's formal launch, Sinclair reached broadcast rights agreements with five

conferences, including Conference USA, the Colonial Athletic Association, Big South Conference,

, and the Patriot League. ASN's first broadcasts took place on August 30, 2014, featuring two football games involving Conference USA teams (

Old Dominion University Old Dominion University (Old Dominion or ODU) is a public research university in Norfolk, Virginia. It was established in 1930 as the Norfolk Division of the College of William & Mary and is now one of the largest universities in Virginia w ...

vs. Hampton University and

Florida International University Florida International University (FIU) is a public research university with its main campus in Miami-Dade County. Founded in 1965, the school opened its doors to students in 1972. FIU has grown to become the third-largest university in Florid ...

hosting Bethune-Cookman University). In September 2014, Sinclair reached a two-year deal with the

International Motor Sports Association The International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) is a North American sports car racing sanctioning body based in Daytona Beach, Florida under the jurisdiction of the ACCUS arm of the FIA. It was started by John Bishop, a former executive dire ...

to syndicate broadcasts of the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge series through ASN beginning that year, with a renewal option that could be exercised in 2016. Its first race broadcast on September 13, 2014 was shown on Sinclair stations in at least 36 markets, marking the first non-college sporting event to be syndicated by ASN. On September 29, 2014, Sinclair announced a multi-year deal with the

to broadcast its games through ASN – marking the sixth conference to partner with the service. Sinclair also announced that it had reached syndication deals with stations in 67 markets where the company does not have a station in its portfolio to carry ASN's programming, expanding its total potential audience to 83 million viewers. On October 16, 2014, Jonathan B. LeCrone announced the

had entered into a deal with the American Sports Network to broadcast select games; subsequently on November 10, ASN entered into a broadcast contract with the

. On December 2, 2014, ASN entered into the collegiate

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice h ...

field through an agreement that gave it the rights to air six Penn State

Nittany Lions The Penn State Nittany Lions are the athletic teams of Pennsylvania State University, except for the women's basketball team, known as the Lady Lions. The school colors are navy blue and white. The school mascot is the Nittany Lion. The interc ...

home games. ASN later added two other men's ice hockey contests from the

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

, featuring the

Wisconsin Badgers The Wisconsin Badgers are the athletic teams representing the University of Wisconsin–Madison (University of Wisconsin). They compete as a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level ( Football Bowl Subdivis ...

and

Ohio State Buckeyes The Ohio State Buckeyes are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Ohio State University, located in Columbus, Ohio. The athletic programs are named after the colloquial term for people from the state of Ohio and after the state tre ...

. On January 23, 2015, Sinclair announced that it had acquired regional television rights to

of Major League Soccer beginning in the 2015 season, with ASN handling production of the telecasts.

KMYU KMYU (channel 12) is a television station licensed to St. George, Utah, United States, serving as the MyNetworkTV affiliate for the state of Utah. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside Salt Lake City–based CBS affiliate KUTV (cha ...

and

KUTV KUTV (channel 2) is a television station in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside independent station KJZZ-TV (channel 14) and St. George–licensed MyNetworkTV affiliate K ...

aired the games locally, and they were syndicated to Sinclair stations in

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

and

Reno, Nevada Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada-California border, about north from Lake Tahoe, known as "The Biggest Little City in the World". Known for its casino and tourism industry, Reno is the ...

as well as in

Boise, Idaho Boise (, , ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Idaho and is the county seat of Ada County. On the Boise River in southwestern Idaho, it is east of the Oregon border and north of the Nevada border. The downtown ar ...

. Stations in Arizona and New Mexico were able to bid for the local rights to telecast the matches in their markets. On May 19, 2015, ASN announced that it had reached an agreement with Minor League Baseball (MiLB) to televise a weekly game during the 2015 season. ASN aired a weekly game live from different individual leagues on Sunday nights, and also aired the all-star games for the Florida State League and the

Midwest League The Midwest League is a Minor League Baseball league established in 1947 and based in the Midwestern United States. A Class A league for most of its history, the league was promoted to High-A as part of Major League Baseball's 2021 reorganizat ...

. On June 24, 2015 the Southland Conference announced that ASN would televise select matches from their conference beginning with the 2015 fall football season. The ASN package replaced the Southland Conference TV Network syndication package. In September 2015, ASN reached a deal with the

, sub-licensed through

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...

, to broadcast selected games. In the 2015–16 academic season, ASN was scheduled to broadcast 10 football games, 10 men's basketball games, and 5 women's basketball games. ASN also reached deals with the NCAA Division I ice hockey conferences, including the

Big Ten The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

ECAC Hockey ECAC Hockey is one of the six conferences that compete in NCAA Division I college ice hockey, ice hockey. The conference used to be affiliated with the Eastern College Athletic Conference, a consortium of over 300 colleges in the eastern United ...

Hockey East The Hockey East Association, also known as Hockey East, is a college ice hockey conference which operates entirely in New England. It participates in the NCAA's Division I as a hockey-only conference. Hockey East came into existence in 1984 for ...

National Collegiate Hockey Conference The National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC) is an NCAA men's Division I hockey conference formed on July 9, 2011. The league began playing for the 2013–14 season, the same season that the Big Ten Conference began competition, as a combina ...

, and the

Western Collegiate Hockey Association The Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) is a college athletic conference which operates in the Midwestern United States. It participates in the NCAA's Division I as a women's ice hockey-only conference. From 1951 to 1999, it operated a ...

, to broadcast games as part of a Friday night package. In November 2015, it was announced that ASN had acquired broadcast rights to the inaugural

. On December 18, 2015,

of Major League Soccer announced that Sinclair had acquired rights to the team. ASN-produced coverage was aired by

News Channel 8 WJLA 24/7 News is an American regional cable news television channel in Washington D.C. by ABC-affiliated station WJLA-TV (channel 7) owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group. The channel provides 24-hour news coverage primarily focused on Washing ...

and

WJLA-TV WJLA-TV (channel 7) is a television station in Washington, D.C., affiliated with ABC. It is one of two flagship stations of Sinclair Broadcast Group (alongside dual Fox/ MyNetworkTV affiliate WBFF hannel 45in Baltimore), and is also s ...

. Matches were also syndicated to digital subchannels of

WUTB WUTB (channel 24) is a television station in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, airing programming from the digital multicast network TBD. It is owned by Deerfield Media, which maintains a shared services agreement (SSA) with Sinclair Broadcast ...

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

, WRLH

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States * Richmond, London, a part of London * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, ...

WTVZ WTVZ-TV (channel 33) is a television station licensed to Norfolk, Virginia, United States, serving the Hampton Roads area as an affiliate of MyNetworkTV. Owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, the station maintains studios on Clearfield Avenue in Vi ...

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

, and WSET Roanoke. On January 8, 2016, Sinclair announced a dedicated American Sports Network channel, offered as an affiliation for digital subchannels of stations in Baltimore, Charleston, Cincinnati, Columbus, Greensboro, Myrtle Beach, Nashville, Pittsburgh, Portland, and Raleigh-Durham. The service launched on January 11, 2016.

2017: Relaunch as Stadium

On April 13, 2017, Sinclair officially announced that the multicast network component of ASN would be re-launched later in the year as part of a joint venture with

(owner of

) and its online sports video service

, later revealed to be Stadium. The service was set to target both broadcast and digital platforms, with the linear service utilizing the syndication and broadcast network built out for ASN, and 120 Sports providing original studio and long-form programming to the venture. On June 1, 2017, it was reported that Stadium would officially launch around late-July 2017. After a soft launch in July 2017, the service officially launched on August 24, with ASN's over-the-air network formally joining Stadium on September 6. Stadium's studio programming is produced from

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

; Sinclair's West Palm Beach CBS affiliate WPEC-TV shared facilities with ASN, and temporarily used ASN's studio and set for its newscasts while its main studio was being renovated. The same studio is also now used for a remotely-produced newscast for sister station

WGFL WGFL (channel 28) is a television station licensed to High Springs, Florida, United States, serving the Gainesville area as an affiliate of CBS and MyNetworkTV. It is owned by New Age Media alongside low-power, Class A Antenna TV affiliate ...

Programming

* ''A-10 Spotlight'' * ''C-USA Showcase'' * '' Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge'' * ''

soccer'': Announcers include David James &

Brian Dunseth Brian William “Dunny” Dunseth (born March 2, 1977) is an American television soccer commentator and former player. Career College Dunseth played college soccer at California State University, Fullerton, and was one of the first players t ...

* '' Minor League Baseball Sunday Showcase'': Announcers for the games included former

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

players

Brian McRae Brian Wesley McRae (; born August 27, 1967) is a former center fielder in Major League Baseball who played for the Kansas City Royals, Chicago Cubs, New York Mets, Colorado Rockies and Toronto Blue Jays from to . McRae is the son of former ma ...

Keith Moreland Bobby Keith Moreland (born May 2, 1954), nicknamed "Zonk", is a former outfielder, catcher and infielder in Major League Baseball who played for the Philadelphia Phillies, Chicago Cubs, and San Diego Padres. In 1989, the final year of his career, ...

and Dave Armstrong. * ''The Dance League on ASN'' (syndicated) with Millennium

Dancesport Dancesport is competitive ballroom dancing, as contrasted to social or exhibition dancing. In the case of Para dancesport, at least one of the dancers is in a wheelchair. Dancesport events are sanctioned and regulated by dancesport organizatio ...

*local high school sports ** ''Thursday Night Lights'' ** ''Friday Night Rivals'' * '' AMA Pro Flat Track Motorcycle Racing'' (syndicated) AMA Pro Racing * ''

soccer'' * ''

ARCA Racing Series The ARCA Menards Series is an American stock car series, the premier division of the Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA). It is considered a minor, semi-professional league of stock car racing, used as a feeder series into the three nationa ...

'' (9 races for 2016, 5 of them were aired live) * ''All Star Sprint Cars'' (6 tape-delayed races for 2016) * '' ROH Rewind''

professional wrestling Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring or ...

NCAA sports

2014–15

During the 2014–15 season, ASN televised live events from the following NCAA Division I conferences:

2015–16

During the 2015–16 season, ASN televised live events from the following NCAA Division I conferences: ASN also acquired the D2 Game of the Week rights and televised

NCAA Division II NCAA Division II (D-II) is an intermediate-level division of competition in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). It offers an alternative to both the larger and better-funded Division I and to the scholarship-free environmen ...

football and men's and women's basketball on their network during 2015–16. The D2 package was formerly on

CBS Sports Network CBS Sports Network (a.k.a. CBSSN) is an American pay television network owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global. When it launched in 2002 as the National College Sports Network (later College Sports Television also known a ...

. ASN also acquired the rights to air the

college football

bowl game In North America, a bowl game is one of a number of post-season college football games that are primarily played by teams belonging to the NCAA's Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). For most of its history, the Division I Bowl Subdivi ...

2016–17

During the 2016-17 season, ASN televised live events from the following NCAA Division I conferences: In addition to the above conferences, ASN acquired the rights to

University of Massachusetts The University of Massachusetts is the five-campus public university system and the only public research system in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The university system includes five campuses (Amherst, Boston, Dartmouth, Lowell, and a medical ...

Minutemen football games for the 2016 season, and retained the rights to air the

college football

. ASN also had the rights to the D2 Game of the Week and televised

football and men's and women's basketball on their network during 2016-17.

List of affiliates

American Sports Network telecasts were aired primarily on stations owned or managed by

; this included stations operated by the firm under local marketing agreements or similar pacts, which itself included stations owned by companies such as Cunningham Broadcasting,

Deerfield Media Deerfield Media, Inc. is a broadcasting company and a shell corporation owned and operated by Stephen P. Mumblow. It was established on December 1, 2012 by the acquisition of several television stations connected to the Sinclair Broadcast Group. ...

, and

Howard Stirk Holdings Armstrong Williams (born February 5, 1962) is an American political commentator, entrepreneur, author, and talk show host. Williams writes a nationally syndicated conservative newspaper column, has hosted a daily radio show, and hosts a nationa ...

among others. These telecasts were not always scheduled to appear on a station's main digital subchannel nor on a fixed single station where Sinclair owned and/or managed more than one station. In addition to the Sinclair stations, ASN's events (and Stadium after that), were also been syndicated to other broadcasters.

Other broadcast affiliates

Regional sports networks

References

External links

* {{SBGI Television channels and stations established in 2014 Television channels and stations disestablished in 2017 American Sports Network) College sports television syndicators Television production companies of the United States Sports television networks in the United States Defunct television networks in the United States Sinclair Broadcast Group Simulcasts American Athletic Conference Atlantic 10 Conference