History
Sinclair Broadcast Group formally announced the launch of the American Sports Network on July 17, 2014; the service was led by Doron Gorshein, who joined the company in January 2014 in the role of chief operating officer of Sinclair Networks. ASN carried live broadcasts of mainly collegiate sporting events, along with ancillary programming focusing on colleges, their students and student-athletes. ASN's content aired primarily on Sinclair-owned-or-operated affiliates of The CW and MyNetworkTV or on secondary digital subchannels of other stations run by the company (some of which had carried content from competing syndicated sports distributors ESPN Regional Television and Raycom Sports until ASN's launch), the latter especially the case for its stations that have primary affiliations with one of the Big Four networks (ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox) which would not pre-empt the higher-tier sports coverage provided by their network partners. Sinclair opened ASN up for distribution by other broadcast outlets interested in carrying the service's content, and announced plans to expand ASN onto digital platforms.[4][5][6]
ASN planned to initially broadcast college football, men's and women's college basketball, women's college soccer, and college baseball events, beginning with the 2014 NCAA Division I FBS and FCS football seasons. Prior to the service's formal launch, Sinclair reached broadcast rights agreements with five NCAA Division I conferences, including Conference USA,[7] the Colonial Athletic Association, Big South Conference, Southern Conference,[8] and the Patriot League.[9]
ASN's first broadcasts took place on August 30, 2014, featuring two football games involving Conference USA teams (Old Dominion University vs. Hampton University and Florida International University hosting Bethune-Cookman University).[10]
In September 2014, Sinclair reached a two-year deal with the International Motor Sports Association to syndicate broadcasts of the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge series through ASN beginning that year, with a renewal option that could be exercised in 2016. Its first race broadcast on September 13, 2014, was shown on Sinclair stations in at least 36 markets, marking the first non-college sporting event to be syndicated by ASN.[11]
On September 29, 2014, Sinclair announced a multi-year deal with the Western Athletic Conference to broadcast its games through ASN – marking the sixth conference to partner with the service. Sinclair also announced that it had reached syndication deals with stations in 67 markets where the company does not have a station in its portfolio to carry ASN's programming, expanding its total potential audience to 83 million viewers.[12][13]
On October 16, 2014, Jonathan B. LeCrone announced the Horizon League had entered into a deal with the American Sports Network to broadcast select games; subsequently on November 10, ASN entered into a broadcast contract with the Ohio Valley Conference.[14]
On December 2, 2014, ASN entered into the collegiate ice hockey field through an agreement that gave it the rights to air six Penn State Nittany Lions home games.[15] ASN later added two other men's ice hockey contests from the Big Ten Conference, featuring the Wisconsin Badgers and Ohio State Buckeyes.[16]
On January 23, 2015, Sinclair announced that it had acquired regional television rights to Real Salt Lake of Major League Soccer beginning in the 2015 season, with ASN handling production of the telecasts. KMYU and KUTV aired the games locally, and they were syndicated to Sinclair stations in Las Vegas and Reno, Nevada as well as in Boise, Idaho. Stations in Arizona and New Mexico were able to bid for the local rights to telecast the matches in their markets.[17]
On May 19, 2015, ASN announced that it had reached an agreement with Minor League Baseball (MiLB) to televise a weekly game during the 2015 season. ASN aired a weekly game live from different individual leagues on Sunday nights, and also aired the all-star games for the Florida State League and the Midwest League.[2]
On June 24, 2015, the Southland Conference announced that ASN would televise select matches from their conference beginning with the 2015 fall football season. The ASN package replaced the Southland Conference TV Network syndication package.[18]
In September 2015, ASN reached a deal with the Mid-American Conference, sub-licensed through ESPN, to broadcast selected games. In the 2015–16 academic season, ASN was scheduled to broadcast 10 football games, 10 men's basketball games, and 5 women's basketball games.[19] ASN also reached deals with the NCAA Division I ice hockey conferences, including the Big Ten, ECAC Hockey, Hockey East, National Collegiate Hockey Conference, and the Western Collegiate Hockey Association, to broadcast games as part of a Friday night package.[20]
In November 2015, it was announced that ASN had acquired broadcast rights to the inaugural Arizona Bowl.[21]
On December 18, 2015, D.C. United of Major League Soccer announced that Sinclair had acquired rights to the team. ASN-produced coverage was aired by News Channel 8 and WJLA-TV.[22] Matches were also syndicated to digital subchannels of WUTB Baltimore, WRLH Richmond, WTVZ Norfolk, and WSET Roanoke.[23]
On January 8, 2016, Sinclair announced a dedicated American Sports Network channel, offered as an affiliation for digital subchannels of stations in Baltimore, Charleston, Cincinnati, Columbus, Greensboro, Myrtle Beach, Nashville, Pittsburgh, Portland, and Raleigh-Durham. The service launched on January 11, 2016.[24]
2017: Relaunch as Stadium
On April 13, 2017, Sinclair officially announced that the multicast network component of ASN would be re-launched later in the year as part of a joint venture with Silver Chalice (owner of Campus Insiders) and its online sports video service 120 Sports, later revealed to be Stadium. The service was set to target both broadcast and digital platforms, with the linear service utilizing the syndication and broadcast network built out for ASN, and 120 Sports providing original studio and long-form programming to the venture.[25][26][27] On June 1, 2017, it was reported that Stadium would officially launch around late-July 2017.[28] After a soft launch in July 2017, the service officially launched on August 21, with ASN's over-the-air network formally joining Stadium on September 6.[3]
