The media or news industry has undergone a huge 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 level of change. Together 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 number of brand new channels or news sites which have sprouted to meet the needs of the constant demand 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 of the media industry. Sports enthusiasts from all over the world are searching for a daily feed of news and information in connection with the variety of sports which are being played across the world. Sports, too, as a physical exercise has evolved and has now gained a wider reach due to the network of the media or news providers.
Nowadays 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 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 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 ability to play their preferred 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 which 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. 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 the action from 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 group of fans since.
Owing 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 that gold, silver and bronze medals together with the prize money award. ESPN has been the live broadcaster of these games and can be regarded as as pioneers in this genre of sports broadcasting.
