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ESPN Australia

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ESPN
CountryAustralia
Broadcast areaOceania
NetworkESPN
Programming
Language(s)English
Picture format576i (SDTV)
720p (HDTV)
Ownership
OwnerESPN Australia Pty Ltd.
(ESPN Inc.) (Branding licensed from Disney Branded Television)
History
Launched19 September 1995 (Optus TV)
April 1999 (Austar)
September 2002 (Foxtel)
Former namesSports ESPN
Links
Websiteespn.com.au
Availability
Streaming media
Foxtel GoChannel 509
Channel 510 (ESPN2)
Fetch MobiChannel 150
Channel 151 (ESPN2)
Kayo SportsNo fixed channel
Sky Sport NowNo fixed channel

ESPN Australia is the Australian division of ESPN, part of the ESPN International grouping. It is offered in Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and the Pacific Islands.

Since 2023, it has been the only Disney-owned network in Oceania along with Baby TV to broadcast as a linear television channel, with the Disney Channel and Disney Junior as well as Nat Geo Wild and National Geographic all having been shut down in favour of the streaming service Disney+.

History

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Initially, ESPN was known as Sports ESPN on the Optus Vision cable television system, and focused on sports aired by its home network in the United States, including American football, baseball, and basketball. In order to expand its local reach, it has shown an increasing number of soccer games including FA Cup, World Cup qualifying games and Major League Soccer. Also on the network schedule are rugby matches, among other sports.

It became available on Austar in April 1999,[1] and Foxtel in September 2002.[2]

The broadcast of Jarryd Hayne's debut for the San Francisco 49ers in the National Football League on 15 September 2015 drew the network's highest ever audience with 116,000 viewers watching the game live, beating the previous audience record of 107,100 viewers for Super Bowl XLVIII in 2014.[3]

On March 1, 2011, ESPN2 launched in Australia both in standard and high definition formats.

On 14 February 2017, ESPN was made available in HD for Fetch TV customers.[4]

Content

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ESPN Australia has made locally-produced content, including Australian versions of PTI and SportsCenter. They also air a soccer discussion show Monday to Friday called ESPNsoccernet PressPass which is hosted by Andrew Orsatti.

The following is the list of sports programming shown on ESPN channels (with some being shown only on ESPN and not ESPN2, and vice versa).[5]

American Football

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Baseball

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Basketball

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Horse Racing

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Ice Hockey

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Mixed martial arts

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  • UFC (Fight Night and PPV preliminaries)

Multi-Sport Events

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Poker

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Professional wrestling

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Soccer

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Other programming

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News and talk shows

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ESPN HD

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ESPN HD was one of the first five channels to be available in HD when Foxtel HD+ launched. ESPN HD commenced in June 2008. The SD version of ESPN began broadcasting in widescreen on 25 January 2010. On 2 June 2011 ESPN HD (the HD simulcast) and ESPN3.com launched in New Zealand on Sky.[6]

ESPN 3D

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ESPN 3D launched in Australia on 30 July 2010. The channel launched to show 8 hours of the X Games 16 live in 3D.[7] Foxtel 3D launched on 1 November 2010 which shows all of ESPN 3D's content – with ESPN 3D no longer having its own channel. ESPN 3D was shut down on 30 September 2013, citing "limited viewer adoption of 3D services".

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Joyce, James (26 March 1999). "Friday Guide / Tunedin". Newcastle Herald. p. 6. Retrieved 3 May 2010.
  2. ^ Schulze, Jane (2 September 2002). "Seven prepares for spat over sport". The Australian. p. 32.
  3. ^ "Jarryd Hayne's debut for San Francisco 49ers helps swell ESPN audience to record levels". Mumbrella. 16 September 2015. Retrieved 16 September 2015.
  4. ^ "Fetch". Facebook. 14 February 2017. Retrieved 30 June 2024.
  5. ^ "espn.com.au" (PDF). ESPN. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 March 2012. Retrieved 21 December 2011.
  6. ^ Duffy, Louise. "ESPN launches ESPN HD and ESPN3 in NZ". Rapid News TV. Retrieved 2 June 2011.
  7. ^ Laughlin, Andrew. "ESPN to run 3D broadcast in Australia". Digital Spy. Retrieved 30 July 2010.
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