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 experienced an enormous level of change. Together with the formats the complete physical aspect of shows has undergone makeovers. As older and 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 constant requirement for news, whether it is in the field of current affairs, news, entertainment or physical activities like sports.
Sports networks have emerged as among 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 in connection with the number of sports which are being played around the world. Sports, too, as being a physical exercise has evolved and has gained a wider reach owing to the network of the media or news providers.
Nowadays it is not just the conventional 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 fan base. There are a number 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, people have the opportunity to play their favorite games which are modeled around the lines of professional sports including football, baseball, basketball, cricket etc. These games have global championships that happen to be played mirroring the overall game pattern that 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 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 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 also taken the initiative of getting X Games popular. X Games are series major action sports championships which 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 each 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 together with the prize money award. ESPN has been the live broadcaster of such games and can be regarded as as pioneers in this genre of sports broadcasting.