Change in the physical formats of media or sports news providers.
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 experienced a tremendous level of change. Together with the formats the entire physical aspect of shows has undergone makeovers. As older and 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 ceaseless requirement for news, whether it is in the area of current affairs, news, entertainment or physical activities such as sports.
Sports networks have emerged as among the most important segments of the media industry. Sports enthusiasts from all around the globe are looking for a daily feed of information and news in connection with 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 due to the network of the media or news providers.
These days it is not only the conventional sports such as baseball, football, basketball, rugby etc that are popular but unconventional sports as action sports for instance surfing, skateboarding, rock and mountain climbing, bungee jumping, sky diving etc have also found their fan base. There are a number of people that practice and take part 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. Together 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 opportunity to play their preferred games that are modeled on the lines of professional sports such as football, baseball, basketball, cricket etc. These games have global championships that happen to be played mirroring the overall game pattern which the sport is founded 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 very 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 of the action out of this sports world.
ESPN has additionally 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 each year; one during summer and one during wintertime covering the summer and winter sports categories respectively. The participants vie for that gold, silver and bronze medals together with the prize money award. ESPN continues to be the live broadcaster of these games and can be regarded as as pioneers on this genre of sports broadcasting.