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ESPN2 is an American multinational
pay television Pay television, also known as subscription television, premium television or, when referring to an individual service, a premium channel, refers to Subscription business model, subscription-based television services, usually provided by multichan ...
network owned by
ESPN Inc. ESPN Inc. is an American multinational sports media conglomerate majority-owned by the Walt Disney Company, with Hearst Communications as an equity stakeholder. Founded by Bill Rasmussen in 1979, it owns and operates local and global cable and ...
, a
joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acce ...
between
the Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was founded on October 16 ...
(which owns a controlling 80% stake) and
Hearst Communications Hearst Corporation, Hearst Holdings Inc. and Hearst Communications Inc. comprise an American multinational mass media and business information conglomerate owned by the Hearst family and based in Hearst Tower in Midtown Manhattan in New York ...
(which owns the remaining 20%). ESPN2 was initially formatted as a younger-skewing counterpart to its parent network
ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was 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 Commu ...
, with a focus on sports popular among
young adult In medicine and the social sciences, a young adult is generally a person in the years following adolescence, sometimes with some overlap. Definitions and opinions on what qualifies as a young adult vary, with works such as Erik Erikson's stages ...
audiences (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. , ESPN2 is available to approximately 70 million pay television households in the United States—down from its 2011 peak of 100 million households.


History

ESPN2 launched on October 1, 1993, at 7:30 p.m. ET. Its inaugural program was the premiere of ''SportsNight'', a sports news program originally hosted by
Keith Olbermann Keith Theodore Olbermann (born January 27, 1959) is an American sports and political commentator and writer. Olbermann spent the first 20 years of his career in sports journalism. He was a sports correspondent for CNN and for local TV and ra ...
and Suzy Kolber; Olbermann opened the show and the channel by jokingly welcoming viewers to "the end of our careers." Launching with an estimated carriage of about 10 million homes, and nicknamed "The Deuce", 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 a
graffiti Graffiti (singular ''graffiti'', or ''graffito'' only in graffiti archeology) is writing or drawings made on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from simple written "monikers" to elabor ...
-themed logo and on-air graphics. Its initial lineup featured studio programs such as ''SportsNight''—which host Keith Olbermann characterized as a "lighter" parallel to ESPN's ''
SportsCenter ''SportsCenter'' (SC) is an American television sports news broadcasting show broadcast by ESPN. Originally anchored by Chris Berman, George Grande,  Greg Gumbel, Lee Leonard, Bob Ley, Sal Marchiano and Lou Palmer, it premiered on Septem ...
'' that would still be "comprehensive, thorough and extremely skeptical", ''
Talk2 ''Talk2'' was a talk show that was hosted by Jim Rome on ESPN2 from 1993 to 1998. The show ran for one hour at night. Jim Everett incident Jim Rome's show achieved the ultimate in notoriety when he welcomed Jim Everett onto the show on April 6, ...
''—a nightly talk show hosted by
Jim Rome James Phillip Rome (born October 14, 1964) is an American sports radio host. His talk show, '' The Jim Rome Show'', is syndicated by Westwood One. Broadcasting from a studio near Los Angeles, California, Rome hosts ''The Jim Rome Show'' on r ...
that was billed as an equivalent to
CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...
's ''
Larry King Live ''Larry King Live'' is an American television talk show broadcast by CNN from June 3, 1985 to December 16, 2010. Hosted by Larry King, it was the network's most watched and longest-running program, with over one million viewers nightly. Ma ...
'', ''Max Out''—an extreme sports
anthology series An anthology series is a written series, radio, television, film, or video game series that presents a different story and a different set of characters in each different episode, season, segment, or short. These usually have a different ca ...
carried over from ESPN, and ''SportsSmash''—a five-minute recap of sports headlines which aired every half-hour. ESPN2 also carried several half-hour, sport-specific studio programs under the ''2Night'' banner, such as '' NFL 2Night'', ''
NHL 2Night ''NHL 2Night'' is a former news magazine that used to broadcast highlights of National Hockey League games and stories about the league up to five nights a week on ESPN and ESPN2. It was usually broadcast live at 10:00 PM ET or immediately fol ...
,'' and '' RPM 2Night''. Event coverage would focus on coverage of mainstream sports popular within the 18–34 age demographic, such as auto racing,
college basketball College basketball is basketball that is played by teams of Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. In the Higher education in the United States, United States, colleges and universities are governed by collegiate athle ...
and NHL hockey (where, beginning in the 1993–94 season, it aired up to five games per week under the title ''NHL Fire on Ice''), while also covering atypical sports such as
BMX BMX, an abbreviation for bicycle motocross or bike motocross, is a cycle sport performed on BMX bikes, either in competitive BMX racing or freestyle BMX, or else in general street or off-road recreation. History BMX began during the ea ...
and other
extreme sport Action sports, adventure sports or extreme sports are physical activity, activities perceived as involving a high degree of risk of injury or death. These activities often involve speed, height, a high level of physical exertion and highly speci ...
s. ESPN2 would also be used to showcase new technology and experimental means of broadcasting events: on September 18, 1994, ESPN2 simulcast
CART A cart or dray (Australia and New Zealand) is a vehicle designed for transport, using two wheels and normally pulled by draught animals such as horses, donkeys, mules and oxen, or even smaller animals such as goats or large dogs. A handcart ...
's Bosch Spark Plug Grand Prix using only onboard camera feeds. In 1995, ESPN2 introduced the " BottomLine", a persistent
news ticker A news ticker (sometimes called a crawler, crawl, slide, zipper, ticker tape, or chyron) is a horizontal or vertical (depending on the language's writing system) text-based display either in the form of a graphic that typically resides in the ...
which displayed sports news and scores. The BottomLine would later be adopted by ESPN itself and all of its future properties. 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 for
station identification Station identification (ident, network ID, channel ID or bumper (broadcasting), bumper) is the practice of radio and television stations and broadcast network, networks identifying themselves on-air, typically by means of a call sign or brand na ...
only, with all programming using the same on-air presentation and ESPN branding as those on the main network.


Programming

Sports events presented on ESPN2 originally tended to be alternative sports such as
poker Poker is a family of Card game#Comparing games, comparing card games in which Card player, players betting (poker), wager over which poker hand, hand is best according to that specific game's rules. It is played worldwide, with varying rules i ...
,
billiards Cue sports are a wide variety of games of skill played with a cue stick, which is used to strike billiard balls and thereby cause them to move around a cloth-covered table bounded by elastic bumpers known as . Cue sports, a category of stic ...
, lumberjacking,
extreme sport Action sports, adventure sports or extreme sports are physical activity, activities perceived as involving a high degree of risk of injury or death. These activities often involve speed, height, a high level of physical exertion and highly speci ...
s and, more recently,
drum and bugle corps Drum and bugle corps is a name used to describe several related musical ensembles. * Drum and bugle corps (modern), a musical marching unit * Drum and bugle corps (classic), musical ensembles that descended from military bugle and drum units retur ...
. However, in recent years ESPN2 has broadcast increasingly more mainstream sporting events, including
Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...
games, the
East–West Shrine Game East West (or East and West) may refer to: *East–West dichotomy, the contrast between Eastern and Western society or culture Arts and entertainment Books, journals and magazines *'' East, West'', an anthology of short stories written by Salm ...
, much of the 2006
World Baseball Classic The World Baseball Classic (WBC), also referred to as the Classic, is an international baseball tournament sanctioned by the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC), the sport's global governing body, and organized in World Baseball Clas ...
, many
Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...
games,
NCAA football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...
games,
NCAA basketball College basketball is basketball that is played by teams of student-athletes at universities and colleges. In the United States, colleges and universities are governed by collegiate athletic bodies, including the National Collegiate Athletic ...
games, the WNBA, the
Arena Football League The Arena Football League (AFL) was a professional arena football league in the United States. It was founded in 1986, but played its first official games in the 1987 Arena Football League season, 1987 season, making it the third longest-runnin ...
, regular-season
KHL The Kontinental Hockey League (KHL; ) is an international professional ice hockey league founded in 2008. It comprises member clubs based in Russia (20), Belarus (1), Kazakhstan (1), and China (1) for a total of 23 clubs. It was considered in ...
games, and Saturday-afternoon NASCAR Nationwide Series races. In 2011, ESPN2 also acquired broadcast rights to delayed coverage for some
American Le Mans Series The American Le Mans Series (ALMS) was a sports car racing series based in the United States and Canada. It consisted of a series of Endurance racing (motorsport), endurance and sprint races, and was created in the spirit of the 24 Hours of Le M ...
events, with series' major events airing on ABC. ESPN2 College Football Primetime is a live game presentation of
college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...
on ESPN2. The channel airs the
Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; , LCF) is a Professional gridiron football, professional Canadian football league in Canada. It comprises nine teams divided into two divisions, with four teams in the East Division (CFL), East Division and f ...
playoffs, including the season-ending
Grey Cup The Grey Cup () is both the championship game of the Canadian Football League (CFL) and the trophy awarded to the victorious team playing in the namesake championship of professional Canadian football. The game is contested between the winners ...
, simulcasting from their Canadian partner TSN. The channel has also become ESPN's home for tennis coverage. The showpieces are three of the "Grand Slam" tournaments: the
Australian Open The Australian Open (stylized ΛO) is a tennis tournament organised by Tennis Australia annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. It is chronologically the first of the four Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Sl ...
,
Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * W ...
and the US Open. U.S.-based tournaments, including the
ATP Masters 1000 The ATP 1000 events, also known as ATP Masters 1000 tournaments, are an annual series of nine tennis tournaments featuring the top-ranked players on the ATP Tour since its inception in 1990. The ATP 1000 tournaments, sitting below the Grand ...
events at Indian Wells and
Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...
, as well as the US Open Series, were also previously broadcast on the channel. Most of ESPN's soccer output has been broadcast on ESPN2, including
Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...
,
Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...
and
La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known as the Primera División or La Liga, and officially known as LaLiga EA Sports for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Spain and the highest ...
matches; the channel also broadcast the United States'
FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often called the World Cup, is an international association football competition among the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internatio ...
qualifiers in 2009. ESPN2 formerly broadcast matches of the
UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...
, until rights for that tournament moved to Fox Soccer and its sister networks. In 2003, ESPN2 began broadcasting
Major League Lacrosse Major League Lacrosse (MLL) was a men's field lacrosse league in the United States. The league's inaugural season was in 2001 Major League Lacrosse season, 2001. Teams played anywhere from ten to 16 games in a summertime regular season. This w ...
games. In March 2007, ESPN2 and the league agreed on a new broadcast contract that ran until the 2016 season. On October 4, 2017, ESPN announced that it had acquired rights to the Formula One World Championship; the majority of the races are carried by ESPN2. The NHL returned to ESPN in the 2021–22 season; ESPN2 primarily serves as a secondary broadcaster during the
Stanley Cup playoffs The Stanley Cup playoffs () is the annual elimination tournament to determine the winner of the Stanley Cup, and the league champion of the National Hockey League (NHL). The four-round, best-of-seven tournament is held after the NHL's regular s ...
. ESPN2's former flagship show, the morning sports/entertainment program ''
Cold Pizza ''Cold Pizza'' was an American television sports morning talk show that aired weekdays on ESPN2 from 2003 to 2007. The show's style was more akin to ''Good Morning America'' than ''SportsCenter''s straight news and highlights format. It included ...
'', achieved minimal success and saw several format and host changes. In January 2006, it was supplanted by the television simulcast of
ESPN Radio ESPN Radio, which is alternatively branded platform-agnostically as ESPN Audio, is an American sports radio network and extension of the ESPN television network. It was launched on January 1, 1992, under the banner "SportsRadio ESPN". The netw ...
's '' Mike and Mike in the Morning'' (which moved from
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 Hear ...
) and moved to a later time slot (10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Eastern Time). In May 2007, ''Cold Pizza'' moved from New York City to the ESPN headquarters in
Bristol, Connecticut Bristol is a suburban city located in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States, southwest-west of Hartford, Connecticut, Hartford. The city is also 120 miles southwest from Boston, and approximately 100 miles northeast of New York City. The ...
and was renamed '' ESPN First Take''. After ESPN became part of a new broadcast contract with the association, ESPN2 also premiered the new daily show '' NASCAR Now'' (similar to the previous ''RPM 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, and had also faced several timeslot changes, until it was finally canceled in January 2007. On August 20, 2019, the ESPNews
sports betting Sports betting is the activity of predicting sports results and placing a wager on the outcome. Sports bettors place their wagers either legally, through a sportsbook or bookmaker (colloquially known as "bookies"), or illegally through priva ...
studio show ''Daily Wager'' (now '' ESPN Bet Live'') was moved to ESPN2. On August 8, 2018, ESPN2 stunted as " ESPN8: The Ocho"—an homage to a fictitious eighth ESPN channel portrayed in the 2004 film '' DodgeBall: 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 by
ESPNU ESPNU is an American multinational digital cable and satellite sports television channel owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between the Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the remain ...
the previous year.


Simulcasting and alternative telecasts

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 local blackouts of scheduled national game telecasts, and for a while provided a simulcast of
ESPN Deportes ESPN Deportes (, ) is an American multinational Spanish-language pay television sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the ...
' edition of ''SportsCenter'' on Sundays. In return, ESPN2 programming is often seen on ESPN during blackouts of games in certain markets. ESPN2 also often carries ''
SportsCenter ''SportsCenter'' (SC) is an American television sports news broadcasting show broadcast by ESPN. Originally anchored by Chris Berman, George Grande,  Greg Gumbel, Lee Leonard, Bob Ley, Sal Marchiano and Lou Palmer, it premiered on Septem ...
'' at 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 called ''This is SportsCenter'', in which ESPN showed a documentary showing the production of an edition of ''SportsCenter'', 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 at
production control Within supply chain management and manufacturing, production control is the activity of monitoring and Control (management), controlling any particular production or operation. Production control is often run from a specific control room or operati ...
while covering reaction to the night's developments. On March 16, 2008, ESPN2 aired CBS-produced coverage of the SEC men's basketball championship game in most of the country. A
tornado A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with the surface of Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, although the ...
had damaged the original game site, the
Georgia Dome The Georgia Dome was a Stadium#Types, domed stadium in the Southeastern United States. Located in Atlanta between downtown Atlanta, downtown to the east and Vine City to the west, it was owned and operated by the State of Georgia as part of th ...
, causing the remainder of the tournament to be rescheduled and re-located to the smaller Alexander Memorial Coliseum. However, the new, later tip-off time for the SEC championship created a scheduling conflict with CBS's coverage of the Big 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. 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 to counterprogram with lesser-viewed programs. Examples since 2016 have included NBA Christmas Day games, the
2017 World Baseball Classic The 2017 World Baseball Classic (WBC) was an international professional baseball competition, composed of 16 competing nations, held from March 6 to 22, 2017. It was the fourth iteration of the World Baseball Classic. The first-round hosts wer ...
(whose English rights were exclusively held by
MLB Network MLB Network is an American television sports channel dedicated to baseball. It is primarily owned by Major League Baseball, with TNT Sports (United States), TNT Sports, Comcast's NBC Sports Group, Charter Communications, and Cox Communications h ...
), and an
International Champions Cup The International Champions Cup (ICC) was an annual club association football (soccer) official competition staged from 2013 to 2019. COVID-19 resulted in the 2020 edition being cancelled. The tournament was later abolished, but the Women's I ...
game between Real Madrid and FC Barcelona. From the
2017 NFL season The 2017 NFL season was the 98th season in the history of the National Football League (NFL) and the 52nd of the Super Bowl era. The season began on September 7, 2017, with the Kansas City Chiefs defeating the defending Super Bowl LI champion ...
through
2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...
, ESPN2 simulcast ESPN Deportes' Spanish-language broadcasts of ''
Monday Night Football ''Monday Night Football'' (often abbreviated as ''MNF'') is the branding used for broadcasts of National Football League (NFL) games that air on Monday nights. It originally ran on American Broadcasting Company, ABC from 1970 NFL season, 1970 t ...
'' during the first nine weeks of the season, including its pre-game show ''NFL Esta Noche'', and ESPN Latin America's ''SportsCenter'' from Mexico City after the game. ESPN2 had largely scheduled filler programming against ''MNF'' until November, when it begins its Monday-night college basketball coverage. In the 2021 season, the Spanish simulcast of ''MNF'' was replaced with ''Monday Night Football with Peyton and Eli'' (colloquially known as the " Manningcast"), which is hosted by
Eli Eli most commonly refers to: * Eli (name), a given name, nickname and surname * Eli (biblical figure) Eli or ELI may also refer to: Film * ''Eli'' (2015 film), a Tamil film * ''Eli'' (2019 film), an American horror film Music * ''Eli'' (Jan ...
and
Peyton Manning Peyton Williams Manning (born March 24, 1976) is an American former professional American football, football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 18 seasons. Nicknamed "the Sheriff", he spent 14 seasons with the In ...
, and features appearances by other celebrity guests.


High definition

ESPN2 broadcasts in high definition in the
720p 720p (720 lines progressive) is a progressive HD signal format with 720 horizontal lines/1280 columns and an aspect ratio (AR) of 16:9, normally known as widescreen HD (1.78:1). All major HD broadcasting standards (such as SMPTE 292M) includ ...
resolution 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 the AFD #10 flag to transmit the channel's
standard-definition Standard-definition television (SDTV; also standard definition or SD) is a television system that uses a resolution that is not considered to be either high-definition television, high or enhanced definition. ''Standard'' refers to offering a ...
feed in letterboxed
widescreen Widescreen images are displayed within a set of aspect ratio (image), aspect ratios (relationship of image width to height) used in film, television and computer screens. In film, a widescreen film is any film image with a width-to-height aspect ...
, 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


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Espn2 ESPN media outlets Disney acquisitions The Walt Disney Company subsidiaries Television channels and stations established in 1993 English-language television stations in the United States Sports television networks in the United States Television networks in the United States