The media or news industry has undergone a massive 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 a tremendous amount of change. Together with the formats the entire physical aspect of shows has undergone makeovers. As older and much more established media networks have revamped their look, there are a variety 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 like sports.
Sports networks have emerged as one of the most important segments of the media industry. Sports enthusiasts coming from all around the globe are searching for a regular feed of information and news in connection with the variety 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.
Nowadays it is not just the traditional sports including 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 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. Together with the internet becoming 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 which 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 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 through the MLB season. Two media networks which are currently very popular in the fantasy games circuit are ESPN and Yahoo Sports. These two networks provide all the news, games statistics, scores and player as well as team standings. ESPN network even comes up with a fantasy sports newsletter that covers all the action out of this sports world.
ESPN has additionally taken the initiative of getting 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 fan base since.
Due to the diversities within the games there are two championships held each year; one during summer the other 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 such games and can be considered as pioneers on this genre of sports broadcasting.
