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 experienced an enormous level of change. Along with the formats the entire physical appearance of shows has undergone makeovers. As older and much more established media networks have revamped their look, there are a variety of brand new channels or news sites that have sprouted to cater to the ceaseless requirement 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 important segments from the media industry. Sports enthusiasts from all around the globe are looking for a daily feed of news and information regarding the variety of sports which are being played around the world. Sports, too, as being a physical activity has evolved and has gained a wider reach owing to the network of the media or news providers.
These days it is not only the conventional sports such as baseball, football, basketball, rugby etc that are popular but unconventional sports as action sports such as surfing, skateboarding, rock and rock climbing, bungee jumping, sky diving etc have also found their group of followers. There are a variety of people that 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 one of the offshoots of this media change. Together with the internet transforming into a popular source of entertainment, physical sports have already been translated into virtual games in the form of fantasy sports. Now, everyone has the ability to play their favorite games that are modeled around the lines of professional sports such as 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 shall 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 of 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 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 group of fans since.
Owing to the diversities within the games there are 2 championships held every year; one during summer the other during wintertime 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 continues to be the live broadcaster of such games and can be considered as pioneers on this genre of sports broadcasting.