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 an enormous level of change. Together 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 number of brand new channels or news sites that have sprouted to cater to the ceaseless requirement 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 coming from all over the world are searching for a daily feed of news and information regarding the variety of sports which are being played across the world. Sports, too, as a physical exercise has evolved and has gained a wider reach due to the network of the media or news providers.
Nowadays it is not just the traditional sports including baseball, football, basketball, rugby etc that 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 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 favorite games that are modeled around the lines of professional sports such as football, baseball, basketball, cricket etc. These games have global championships that are played mirroring the overall 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 which are organized and broadcast by ESPN. These games began in 1995 and also have gained its fan base since.
Due to the diversities in the games there are two championships held every year; one during summer the other during wintertime covering the summer and winter sports categories respectively. The participants vie for the gold, silver and bronze medals along with the prize money award. ESPN continues to be the live broadcaster of these games and can be regarded as as pioneers on this genre of sports broadcasting.