Change in the physical formats of media or sports news services.
The media or news industry has undergone a massive makeover during the last few years. From stiff collared news readers and reporters to blue and boring sets, to repetitive show formats all have seen a tremendous level of change. Together with the formats the complete physical aspect of shows has undergone makeovers. As older and much more established media networks have revamped their look, there are a number of new channels or news sites which have sprouted to cater to the constant requirement for news, be it in the field of current affairs, news, entertainment or physical activities such as sports.
Sports networks have emerged as one of the most significant segments of the media industry. Sports enthusiasts from all over the world are looking for a daily feed of news and information regarding the number of sports which are being played across the world. Sports, too, as a physical activity has evolved and has now gained a wider reach owing to the network of the media or news providers.
These days it is not only the traditional sports including baseball, football, basketball, rugby etc which are popular but unconventional sports as action sports for instance surfing, skateboarding, rock and rock climbing, bungee jumping, sky diving etc have also found their group of followers. There are a number of people that practice and participate in these adrenalin pumping extreme sports, thus increasing its popularity and encouraging several media and news networks to come up and cover these events.
Fantasy sports, too, are some of the offshoots of this media change. With the internet transforming into a popular source of entertainment, physical sports have been translated into virtual games in the form of fantasy sports. Now, everyone has the ability to play their favorite games which are modeled around the lines of professional sports such as football, baseball, basketball, cricket etc. These games have global championships that are played mirroring the game pattern that the sport is based on.
So like MLB baseball has 162 games being played in one season, fantasy baseball too has 162 games that shall be played during the MLB season. Two media networks which are currently extremely popular in the fantasy games circuit are ESPN and Yahoo Sports. Both of these networks provide all of the news, games statistics, scores and player along with team standings. ESPN network even comes up with a fantasy sports newsletter that covers all the action from this sports world.
ESPN has also taken the initiative of making X Games popular. X Games are series major action sports championships that are organized and broadcast by ESPN. These games began in 1995 and have gained its group of fans since.
Owing to the diversities within the games there are 2 championships held every year; one during summer and one during winter covering the summer and winter sports categories respectively. The participants vie for the gold, silver and bronze medals along with the prize money award. ESPN has been the live broadcaster of these games and can be considered as pioneers on this genre of sports broadcasting.