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BottomLine is ESPN's
lower third In the television industry, a lower third is a graphic overlay placed in the title-safe lower area of the screen, though not necessarily the entire lower third of it, as the name suggests. In its simplest form, a lower third can just be tex ...
sports information ticker. It is uniform in design and used on all ESPN networks. It displays current sports scores, stats, and headlines in a 'push-then-scroll' format. It also serves as a display for urgent information, such as breaking sports news, breaking significant national news from ESPN sister networks ABC and FX, updated scores, a rain delay notification, or the move of a game from one ESPN network to another. BottomLine is also used on the TSN channels in Canada and on the
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and Brazilean ESPN channels. On special occasions, a customized version of the ticker may be used; some examples are
Pi day Pi Day is an annual celebration of the mathematical constant (pi). Pi Day is observed on March 14 (the 3rd month) since 3, 1, and 4 are the first three significant figures of , and was first celebrated in the United States. It was founded i ...
, in which a Pi symbol is placed next to the ESPN logo, and the
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, when an
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surrounds the ESPN logo.


History

''
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 ...
'' debuted a new graphics package on April 6, 2009, with the "rundown" graphic (shown during the daytime editions) moved to the left side of the screen. A new BottomLine was also released that day on ESPN,
ESPN2 ESPN2 is an American multinational pay 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%). ESPN2 was initially ...
, ESPN Classic, and
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 ...
but it was quickly removed and reverted to the old BottomLine (which had been used since April 2003) because of major technical difficulties. The new BottomLine was functional during coverage of the 2009 NFL draft and the 2009 NBA Draft, but the issues were fixed and the it eventually returned on July 8 of the same year. Yet another redesigned BottomLine was launched at 11 PM ET on June 22, 2014, to coincide with a dramatic redesign of the SportsCenter studio. On August 20, 2018, a refreshed BottomLine launched. The BottomLine switched to a "flipper" format, used two lines of text, and no longer showed the logos of teams during score updates (though team abbreviations still appeared in the second line of text). In addition, the rightmost third of the BottomLine now contains a rotating display of promotions for ESPN and
ESPN+ ESPN+ is an American over-the-top subscription video streaming service available in the United States, owned by ESPN Inc., which is a joint venture between the Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communicati ...
programming, which can also be used to display breaking news or program advisories when needed.


Variants


ESPN2

In 1995, ESPN2 debuted a sports news ticker, dubbed by Production Assistant Onnie Bose as the "BottomLine Update." It is a persistent ticker which stayed at the bottom of the screen at all times during most programming, unlike ESPN, who only showed their own at the :18 (formerly :28) and :58 of each hour (accompanied by an audio cue, which has since been adapted as the alert tone for ESPN's mobile apps) and during select programming. The introductory audio cue was removed when the BottomLine graphics were updated in 2009. ESPN2's sports telecasts were also among the first to regularly use a scoring bug. In later years, ESPN2 would also participate in "Full Circle" telecasts, productions of a single game aired across multiple ESPN services to provide additional features and angles.


ESPNEWS

ESPNEWS's "bottom line" — a small rectangular area at the bottom one-fifth of the screen flashing scores—is more in-depth than the one airing on ESPN's other networks. It contains not only scores but also statistics and brief news alerts about the day's happenings in sports. It also remains on screen during most commercial breaks. This particular BottomLine was re-designed as the network was re-launched on March 30, 2008. The change from a big BottomLine to the ESPN-shaped BottomLine, the decrease of ESPNEWS programming, and SportsCenter being shown on ESPNEWS has had some controversy among longtime ESPNEWS viewers. The network was changed over to a full-screen presentation in June 2010 with the network receiving the BottomLine used on all other ESPN networks in anticipation of the network's
primetime Prime time, or peak time, is the block of broadcast programming taking place during the middle of the evening for television shows. It is mostly targeted towards adults (and sometimes families). It is used by the major television networks to b ...
programming being rebranded under the SportsCenter branding.


ESPN on ABC

With ABC adopting ESPN production and imaging for sports broadcasts beginning in 2006, ABC has used ESPN's BottomLine during sports broadcasts, with its only differences being its branding, and being formatted to the 4:3 aspect ratio (as with all sports broadcasts on ABC) until ABC migrated to a 16:9 format for network programming for the 2016–17 television season (however BottomLine is not displayed when the network takes commercials, with a notable exception, the
NFL draft The NFL draft, officially known as the Annual Player Selection Meeting, is an annual event which serves as the most common source of player recruitment in the National Football League. Each team is given a position in the drafting order in reve ...
,
NBA draft The NBA draft is the National Basketball Association's (NBA) annual event, dating back to 1947 BAA draft, 1947, in which the teams in the league can Draft (sports), draft players who declare for the draft and that are Eligibility for the NBA dr ...
and NHL games during intermissions). For SEC broadcasts starting in the 2024 season, the SEC on ABC logo is used instead of just the ABC logo.


ESPN on FX

In the
2023 XFL season The 2023 XFL season was the second season in the reboot of the XFL, the first under its new ownership group of Dwayne Johnson, Dany Garcia, and Gerry Cardinale (RedBird Capital), and the third in the history of the XFL brand created and origina ...
, the BottomLine ticker is identical to ESPN's design and the broadcast presentation is similar to the ESPN on ABC broadcasts. The only exceptions is that the FX logo is in place of the ABC logo on the BottomLine ticker and the ESPN on FX logo in place of the ESPN on ABC logo on the top right, just like ESPN on ABC, the BottomLine ticker is not displayed when taking commercials, despite it being a cable network like all the other ESPN networks.


ESPN+

For select events either an exclusive bottomline is displayed, if the event is simulcast of something also on the ESPN's cable network. It will use the corresponding network's bottomline, or not at all (like the ESPN on ABC bottomline, for example, is not used during commercials unless it is displayed on a network it’s simulcasting it)


TSN

The BottomLine ticker is identical to the ESPN's design. When TSN debuted the new BottomLine ticker as ESPN, differences on the right side include advertising of
Bell Media Bell Media Inc. (Canadian French, French: ) is a Canadian media conglomerate that is the mass media subsidiary of BCE Inc. (also known as Bell Canada Enterprises, the owner of telecommunications company Bell Canada). Its operations include nati ...
's other properties such as Crave and
CTV 2 CTV 2 is a Television in Canada, Canadian English language, English-language television system owned by the Bell Media subsidiary of BCE Inc. The system consists of four terrestrial owned-and-operated station, owned-and-operated television stat ...
.


''Cold Pizza''

''
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 ...
'' was notable for having its own version of ESPN's BottomLine, as their ticker not only gave sports scores but also news headlines and weather forecasts from sports cities and is shown in its own color scheme. It also functioned differently: it constantly scrolled, while other ESPN "BottomLines" usually "flip" through the different scores, scrolling only for long statistical lines (until August 20, 2018, when the bottomline was updated to flip even through long statistical lines, as a result of the bottomline now being two lines rather than one). This graphic was discontinued in the summer of 2006 when the "BottomLine" was changed to resemble those of other ESPN programs.


College Football Playoff Megacast

The Playoff Megacasts for 2017 introduced a new statistical ticker, which shows info about the current drive, and stats about plays made. Unlike the others, it just fades out stats, instead of flipping. For the 2018 semifinals, a newly redesigned version of the statistical ticker was unveiled.


Defunct Windows PC Ticker

From the
Windows 98 Windows 98 is a consumer-oriented operating system developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows 9x family of Microsoft Windows operating systems. It was the second operating system in the 9x line, as the successor to Windows 95. It was Software ...
era to the middle of the
Windows XP Windows XP is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It was released to manufacturing on August 24, 2001, and later to retail on October 25, 2001. It is a direct successor to Windows 2000 for high-end and business users a ...
era, a BottomLine ticker application using Macromedia Shockwave technology was available for personal use on a Windows
personal computer A personal computer, commonly referred to as PC or computer, is a computer designed for individual use. It is typically used for tasks such as Word processor, word processing, web browser, internet browsing, email, multimedia playback, and PC ...
(and was embeddedable with credit as a part of
personal website Personal web pages are World Wide Web pages created by an individual to contain content of a personal nature rather than content pertaining to a company, organization or institution. Personal web pages are primarily used for informative or ente ...
s). Its last update (version 2.1) was in August 2004.


References

* * * * {{ESPN ESPN