ESPN Australia

ESPN Australia is a 24-hour sports channel offered in Australia, New Zealand, Pacific Islands and Papua New Guinea.

ESPN
ESPN logo
Launched19 September 1995 (Optus TV)
April 1999 (Austar)
September 2002 (Foxtel)
NetworkESPN
Picture format576i (SDTV)
720p (HDTV)
Audience share(In Australia)
0.1% (April 2008, [1])
SloganThe Worldwide Leader in Sports
CountryAustralia
LanguageEnglish
Broadcast areaAustralia
New Zealand
Pacific Islands
Papua New Guinea
Formerly calledSports ESPN
Sister channel(s)ESPN2
Websitewww.espn.com.au
Availability
Satellite
FoxtelChannel 508 (HD)
Channel 1508 (SD)
Sky (NZ)Channel 060-061 (HD)
Cable
FoxtelChannel 508 (HD)
Channel 1508 (SD)
Optus TVChannel 508 (SD)
TransACTChannel 351 (SD)
IPTV
Foxtel NowChannel 508 (HD)
Fetch TVChannel 115 (HD)
Vodafone TV (NZ)Channel 230-231 (HD)
Streaming media
Foxtel GoChannel 508

Initially, ESPN was known as Sports ESPN on the Optus Vision cable television system, and focused on sports aired by its home network in the United States, including American football, baseball, and basketball. In order to expand its local reach, it has shown an increasing number of football games including FA Cup, World Cup qualifying games and Major League Soccer. Also on the network schedule are rugby matches, among other sports.

ESPN Australia has also commenced showing locally produced content including Australian versions of PTI and SportsCenter. They also air a soccer discussion show Monday to Friday called ESPNsoccernet PressPass which is hosted by Andrew Orsatti.

On 1 March 2011, ESPN2 launched in Australia both in standard and high definition formats.

History

It became available on Austar in April 1999,[2] and Foxtel in September 2002.[3]

The broadcast of Jarryd Hayne's debut for the San Francisco 49ers in the National Football League on 15 September 2015 drew the network's highest ever audience with 116,000 viewers watching the game live, beating the previous audience record of 107,100 viewers for Super Bowl XLVIII in 2014.[4]

Content

The following is the list of sports programming shown on the ESPN network (with some being shown only on ESPN and not ESPN2, and vice versa).[5]

Athletics

American Football

Baseball

Basketball

eSports

Extreme Sports

Ice Hockey

Mixed martial arts
  • UFC (Fight Night and PPV preliminaries)

Motor Racing

Multi-Sport Events

Poker

Soccer

Tennis

Other programming

News and talk shows

ESPN HD

ESPN HD was one of the first five channels to be available in HD when Foxtel HD+ launched. ESPN HD commenced in June 2008. The SD version of ESPN began broadcasting in widescreen on 25 January 2010. On 2 June 2011 ESPN HD (the HD simulcast) and ESPN3.com launched in New Zealand on Sky.[6]

ESPN 3D

ESPN 3D launched in Australia on 30 July 2010. The channel launched to show 8 hours of the X Games 16 live in 3D.[7] Foxtel 3D launched on 1 November 2010 which shows all of ESPN 3D's content - with ESPN 3D no longer having its own channel. ESPN 3D was shut down on 30 September 2013, citing "limited viewer adoption of 3D services".

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See also

References
  1. Ratings Week 16 (13/04/2008 - 19/04/2008)
  2. Joyce, James (26 March 1999). "Friday Guide / Tunedin". Newcastle Herald. p. 6. Retrieved 3 May 2010.
  3. Schulze, Jane (2 September 2002). "Seven prepares for spat over sport". The Australian. p. 32.
  4. "Jarryd Hayne's debut for San Francisco 49ers helps swell ESPN audience to record levels". Mumbrella. 16 September 2015. Retrieved 16 September 2015.
  5. "espn.com.au" (PDF). ESPN. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 March 2012. Retrieved 21 December 2011.
  6. Duffy, Louise. "ESPN launches ESPN HD and ESPN3 in NZ". Rapid News TV. Retrieved 2 June 2011.
  7. Laughlin, Andrew. "ESPN to run 3D broadcast in Australia". Digital Spy. Retrieved 30 July 2010.
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