ESPN Australia
ESPN Australia is the Australian division of ESPN, part of the ESPN International grouping. It is offered in Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and the Pacific Islands.
| Country | Australia |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Oceania |
| Network | ESPN |
| Programming | |
| Language(s) | English |
| Picture format | 576i (SDTV) 720p (HDTV) |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | ESPN Australia Pty Ltd. (ESPN Inc.) (Branding licensed from Disney Branded Television) |
| History | |
| Launched | 19 September 1995 (Optus TV) April 1999 (Austar) September 2002 (Foxtel) |
| Former names | Sports ESPN |
| Links | |
| Website | espn |
| Availability | |
| Streaming media | |
| Foxtel Go | Channel 509 Channel 510 (ESPN2) |
| Fetch Mobi | Channel 150 Channel 151 (ESPN2) |
| Kayo Sports | No fixed channel |
| Sky Sport Now | No fixed channel |
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 soccer 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 March 1, 2011, ESPN2 launched in Australia both in standard and high definition formats.
Since 2023,[update] it has been the only Disney-owned network in Oceania along with Baby TV to broadcast as a linear television channel, with the Disney Channel and Disney Junior as well as Nat Geo Wild and National Geographic all having been shut down in favour of the streaming service Disney+.
History edit
It became available on Austar in April 1999,[1] and Foxtel in September 2002.[2]
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.[3]
Content edit
The following is the list of sports programming shown on ESPN channels (with some being shown only on ESPN and not ESPN2, and vice versa).[4]
American Football edit
- National Football League (includes NFL Draft, Sunday Night Football, Monday Night Football, Thursday Night Football, three Sunday afternoon games, all NFL Network games, NFL RedZone, Pro Bowl plus all the Playoff games and Super Bowl)
- College football (includes regular season, Heisman Trophy, College Football Playoff and College Football Championship Game)
- XFL
Baseball edit
- Major League Baseball (includes Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday Night Baseball, MLB Strike Zone, Home Run Derby, All-Star Game, all playoff games and World Series)
- College baseball
- Little League World Series
- World Baseball Classic
Basketball edit
- National Basketball Association (includes NBA draft, NBA All-Star Weekend, Wednesday and Friday games (mostly doubleheaders), Saturday games (including all ABC games), ESPN/ABC games on Monday and Sunday, all TNT games, playoff games and NBA Finals)
- FIBA Basketball World Cup (Except New Zealand)
- FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup (Except New Zealand)
- National Basketball League (Except New Zealand)
- Women's National Basketball League (Except New Zealand)
- Women's National Basketball Association
- College basketball
- NBA Summer League
- NBA G League
- The Basketball Tournament
Horse Racing edit
Ice Hockey edit
Mixed martial arts edit
- UFC (Fight Night and PPV preliminaries)
Multi-Sport Events edit
- Special Olympics World Games
- Aurora Games
Professional wrestling edit
- All Elite Wrestling (includes AEW Dynamite, AEW Rampage and quarterly pay-per-view events)
Soccer edit
- Belgian First Division A (only on Watch ESPN)
- Belgian Cup (only on Watch ESPN)
- Belgian Super Cup
- Toulon Tournament
Other programming edit
News and talk shows edit
ESPN HD edit
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.[5]
ESPN 3D edit
ESPN 3D launched in Australia on 30 July 2010. The channel launched to show 8 hours of the X Games 16 live in 3D.[6]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".
See also edit
References edit
- ^ Joyce, James (26 March 1999). "Friday Guide / Tunedin". Newcastle Herald. p. 6. Retrieved 3 May 2010.
- ^ Schulze, Jane (2 September 2002). "Seven prepares for spat over sport". The Australian. p. 32.
- ^ "Jarryd Hayne's debut for San Francisco 49ers helps swell ESPN audience to record levels". Mumbrella. 16 September 2015. Retrieved 16 September 2015.
- ^ (PDF). ESPN. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 March 2012. Retrieved 21 December 2011.
- ^ Duffy, Louise. "ESPN launches ESPN HD and ESPN3 in NZ". Rapid News TV. Retrieved 2 June 2011.
- ^ Laughlin, Andrew. "ESPN to run 3D broadcast in Australia". Digital Spy. Retrieved 30 July 2010.
External links edit
- ESPN website
- Watch ESPN website