ESPN Australia

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ESPN
ESPN wordmark.svg
CountryAustralia
Broadcast areaOceania
NetworkESPN
Programming
Language(s)English
Picture format576i (SDTV)
720p (HDTV)
Ownership
OwnerESPN Australia Pty Ltd.
(ESPN Inc.)
History
Launched19 September 1995 (Optus TV)
April 1999 (Austar)
September 2002 (Foxtel)
Former namesSports ESPN
Links
Websitewww.espn.com.au
Availability
Cable
FoxtelChannel 509 (HD)
Channel 579 (SD)
Channel 510 (ESPN2 HD)
Channel 580 (ESPN2 SD)
Optus TVChannel 509 (SD)
Channel 579 (HD)
Channel 580 (ESPN2 HD)
Channel 510 (ESPN2 SD)
TransACTChannel 351 (SD)
Satellite
FoxtelChannel 509 (HD)
Channel 579 (SD)
Channel 510 (ESPN2 HD)
Channel 580 (ESPN2 SD)
Sky (NZ)Channel 060-061 (HD)
IPTV
Foxtel NowChannel 509 (HD)
Channel 510 (ESPN2 HD)
Fetch TVChannel 115 (HD)
Vodafone TV (NZ)Channel 230-231 (HD)
Streaming media
Foxtel GoChannel 509
Channel 510 (ESPN2)
Kayo SportsNo fixed channel

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.

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,[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[]

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).[4]

Athletics[]

American Football[]

  • National Football League (includes NFL Draft, Sunday Night Football, Monday 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)

Baseball[]

  • Major League Baseball (includes Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday 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
  • USA Softball International Cup

Basketball[]

  • 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)
  • National Basketball League (140 regular-season games. Except New Zealand)
  • Women's National Basketball Association
  • College basketball
  • NBA Summer League
  • NBA G League
  • The Basketball Tournament

eSports[]

  • Madden Club Championship
  • Madden Bowl

Extreme Sports[]

  • X Games

Ice Hockey[]

  • National Hockey League

Mixed martial arts[]

  • UFC (Fight Night and PPV preliminaries)

Motor Racing[]

  • AMA Supercross Championship

Multi-Sport Events[]

Soccer[]

  • Major League Soccer
  • Belgian First Division A (only on Watch ESPN)
  • Belgian Cup (only on Watch ESPN)
  • Belgian Super Cup (only on Watch ESPN)
  • Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup
  • WAFU Nations Cup
  • Toulon Tournament

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.[5]

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.[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[]

  • List of sports television channels

References[]

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

External links[]

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