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 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 number of brand new channels or news sites that have sprouted to cater to the ceaseless demand for news, be it in the field of current affairs, news, entertainment or physical activities like sports.
Sports networks have emerged as among the most important segments from the media industry. Sports enthusiasts from all around the globe are searching for a daily feed of news and information in connection with the number of sports that are being played around the world. Sports, too, as a physical exercise 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 such as 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 variety of people who 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 one 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, everyone has the opportunity to play their preferred games which are modeled on the lines of professional sports including 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 will be played through the MLB season. Two media networks that have become extremely popular in the fantasy games circuit are ESPN and Yahoo Sports. These two 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 of 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 also have gained its fan base since.
Due to the diversities within the games there are two championships held every 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 along with the prize money award. ESPN has been the live broadcaster of such games and can be regarded as as pioneers on this genre of sports broadcasting.