The media or news industry has undergone a huge makeover over the past few years. From stiff collared news readers and reporters to blue and boring sets, to repetitive show formats all have seen an enormous level of change. Along with the formats the complete physical appearance of shows has undergone makeovers. As older and much more established media networks have revamped their look, there are a variety of brand new channels or news sites that have sprouted to meet the needs of the constant requirement for news, whether it is in the field of current affairs, news, entertainment or physical activities such as sports.
Sports networks have emerged as among the most significant segments from the media industry. Sports enthusiasts coming from all around the globe are searching for a regular feed of information and news regarding the variety of sports which are being played across the world. Sports, too, as a physical activity has evolved and has gained a wider reach owing to the network of the media or news providers.
These days it is not just the traditional sports including baseball, football, basketball, rugby etc that are popular but unconventional sports as action sports such as surfing, skateboarding, rock and rock climbing, bungee jumping, sky diving etc have also found their fan base. There are a variety of people who 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 becoming a popular source of entertainment, physical sports have already been translated into virtual games in the form of fantasy sports. Now, people have the ability to play their favorite games that are modeled on the lines of professional sports including football, baseball, basketball, cricket etc. These games have global championships that happen to be 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 will be played during the MLB season. Two media networks that have become very popular in the fantasy games circuit are ESPN and Yahoo Sports. Both of these networks provide all 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 out of 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 in the games there are two championships held each year; one during summer the other during wintertime covering the summer and winter sports categories respectively. The participants vie for the gold, silver and bronze medals together with the prize money award. ESPN has been the live broadcaster of such games and can be considered as pioneers on this genre of sports broadcasting.