ESPN Plus
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| ESPN Plus | |
 |
|
| Country |  United States |
|---|---|
| Availability | Regional |
| Owner | The Walt Disney Company (80%) Hearst Corporation (20%) |
| Key people | George Bodenheimer, President, ESPN, Inc. |
ESPN Plus is the popular name of ESPN Regional Television, which is an American television program syndicator. ERT is based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Until its purchase by ESPN, this sports package's syndicator was known as Creative Sports.
ESPN Plus produces and syndicates the following telecasts:
- Big East Conference football and basketball
- Big Ten Conference football and basketball (but see below)
- Big 12 Conference basketball
- Sun Belt Conference football
- University of Oregon football and basketball (select games)
ESPN Plus also carried Conference USA and Mountain West Conference football and basketball games at one point, but no longer does. Broadcast rights to Conference USA football and basketball games not selected by ESPN are owned by College Sports TV. Broadcast rights to Mountain West Conference football and basketball games are owned by CSTV and are carried by Versus, CSTV and MountainWest Sports Network.
Beginning in August 2007, ESPN Plus will no longer have broadcast rights to Big Ten Conference football and basketball games. Broadcast rights to these Big Ten Conference games will be owned by Big Ten Network. This is pursuant to a joint venture between the Big Ten and Fox Sports announced on June 22, 2006.[1]
Games air on broadcast stations, cable/satellite networks, and on ESPN GamePlan and ESPN FullCourt, both of which are pay-per-view packages.
ERT shares its facilities with those of ESPNU, which airs SportsCenterU, The U, Inside the Polls, and Give 'n' Go from those facilities. Mike Hall hosts all shows other than Give 'n' Go, for which Mike Gleason is host and former NBA player Blue Edwards provides color commentary. ERT also airs Studio 66, named for Big 12 sponsor Phillips 66, as the pregame show before the basketball telecasts. During the conference tournament, it travels to the tournament site.
In addition to the syndicated telecasts, ERT promotes a number of college football and basketball special events.
- It organizes the following college football bowl games, which are televised on either ESPN or ESPN2: Papajohns.com Bowl, New Mexico Bowl, Las Vegas Bowl, Armed Forces Bowl, Hawaii Bowl, and GMAC Bowl. Most of these games are held before Christmas and are branded under the name "Bowl Road Trip." (In contrast, ESPN telecasts after Christmas are referred to as "Capital One Bowl Week.")
- It is also behind a number of college basketball events, including the Old Spice Classic held at Disney's Wide World of Sports in Florida, the All-College Basketball Classic in Oklahoma City, and the new Big East-SEC Challenge that will launch in December 2007. All games are shown on ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU.
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