ESPNU is an American multinational

digital cable Digital cable is the distribution of cable television using digital data and video compression. The technology was first developed by General Instrument. By 2000, most cable companies offered digital features, eventually replacing their previou ...

and satellite sports television channel owned by

ESPN Inc. ESPN Inc. is an American multinational sports media conglomerate majority-owned by The Walt Disney Company, with Hearst Communications as an equity stakeholder. For management and financial reporting purposes, the company is the main entity with ...

, a joint venture between the Disney Media Networks division of The Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and the

Hearst Communications Hearst Communications, Inc., often referred to simply as Hearst, is an American multinational mass media and business information conglomerate based in Hearst Tower in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Hearst owns newspapers, magazines, televi ...

(which owns the remaining 20%). The channel is primarily dedicated to coverage of college athletics, and is also used as an additional outlet for general ESPN programming. ESPNU is based alongside its sister networks at ESPN's headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut. As of November 2021, ESPNU reaches approximately 51 million television households in the United States – a drop of 24% from nearly a decade ago.

History

The network was launched on March 4, 2005, with its first broadcast originating from the site of Gallagher-Iba Arena on the Oklahoma State University campus in Stillwater, Oklahoma. The network's first live event was a semifinal game of the Ohio Valley Conference men's basketball tournament between

Southeast Missouri State University Southeast Missouri State University (SEMO) is a public university in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. In addition to the main campus, the university has four regional campuses offering full degree programs and a secondary campus housing the Holland Col ...

and Eastern Kentucky University. The network was launched as a response to rival College Sports Television (CSTV) (now CBS Sports Network). ESPN was also being investigated by the U.S. Justice Department on allegations of "warehousing" collegiate sporting events from certain conferences, or signing a deal with a conference for all their games, but only televising a small number and not allowing the conference to make other arrangements for television broadcasts. ESPN and XOS Technologies entered into a partnership for college athletics websites to compete directly with CSTV's growing internet presence. On August 28, 2006, ESPNU launched a new ''

SportsCenter ''SportsCenter'' (SC) is a daily sports news television show, television program that serves as the flagship program and brand of United States, American cable television, cable and satellite television television network, network ESPN. The show ...

spin-off Spin-off may refer to: *Spin-off (media), a media work derived from an existing work *Corporate spin-off, a type of corporate action that forms a new company or entity * Government spin-off, civilian goods which are the result of military or gove ...

focusing entirely on college sports. The program, ''

SportsCenterU ''SportsCenterU'' is the college version of ESPN's flagship program ''SportsCenter'' which airs exclusively on ESPNU. The college sports news and highlight show focuses on reports of the day from men's and women's intercollegiate athletics includi ...

'', was originally scheduled to be broadcast from ESPN's headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut, however ESPN instead chose to originate the show from Charlotte. Mike Hall was the program's lead anchor until August 2007, when he left for the new

Big Ten Network Big Ten Network (BTN) is an American sports network based in Chicago, Illinois. The channel is dedicated to coverage of collegiate sports sanctioned by the Big Ten Conference, including live and recorded event telecasts, news, analysis programs, ...

. He was replaced by Mike Gleason and Lowell Galindo. The two are joined on-set by color commentators that vary depending on the sports season. The same day as ''SportsCenterU''s debut, ESPNU launched the website ESPNU.com. The site included live streaming of college sports events, a multi-media player dedicated to college sports, podcasts and ESPN Motion clips of studio programming from the ESPNU television network. ESPNU expanded its live programming to water polo by broadcasting its first-ever water polo match between the women's teams of Princeton University and Bucknell University on March 28, 2009, from DeNunzio Pool in Princeton, New Jersey. In addition to its collegiate sports coverage, ESPNU has simulcast

ESPN Radio ESPN Radio, which is alternately platform-agnostically branded as ESPN Audio, is an American sports radio network and extension of the ESPN television network. It was launched on January 1, 1992, under the original banner of "SportsRadio ESPN". ...

's midday program over its airwaves since 2008, with the exception of a brief period between 2011 and 2012. The program airing for the majority of that time was '' The Herd with Colin Cowherd'', which has since moved to

Fox Sports Radio Fox Sports Radio is an American sports radio network. Based in Los Angeles, California, the network is operated and managed by Premiere Networks in a content partnership with Fox Corporation's Fox Sports division and iHeartMedia, parent company ...

and is simulcast on Fox Sports 1. Following Cowherd's departure and several weeks of guest hosts taking over the timeslot, ''

The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz ''The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz'' is a syndicated sports talk show hosted by Dan Le Batard and Jon "Stugotz" Weiner broadcast out of Miami. It was also carried on many ESPN Radio Network affiliates nationwide and simulcast nationally on v ...

'' became the permanent replacement for ''The Herd''. On April 26, 2017, as part of a larger series of company-wide cuts, it was announced that ESPNU's studio operations would be re-located from Charlotte to ESPN's main headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut. Less than 10 employees were laid off as part of the cuts. SEC Network and ESPN Events continue to operate out of Charlotte. On August 8, 2017, ESPNU aired a marathon of lesser-known and unconventional non-college sports as " ESPN 8: The Ocho"—an homage to a fictitious eighth ESPN channel portrayed in the film '' DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story'', which aired events that were "almost a sport". The stunt was reprised the following year on ESPN2. On August 31, 2017, as part of an extension of ESPN's agreements with the service,

Sirius XM Sirius XM Holdings Inc. is an American broadcasting company headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City that provides satellite radio and online radio services operating in the United States. It was formed by the 2008 merger of Sirius Sat ...

's channel College Sports Nation was relaunched as ESPNU Radio. The channel carries audio simulcasts of ESPN college sports studio programming, as well as other programs and event coverage.

Carriage

On May 19, 2009, ESPN announced it had reached a carriage agreement with

Comcast Comcast Corporation (formerly known as American Cable Systems and Comcast Holdings),Before the AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corpora ...

, which allows the cable provider to carry ESPNU on a widely distributed digital cable tier, instead of a less popular sports tier. ESPNU was added to most Comcast systems in time for the start of the 2009–10

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

season. This ended several years of negotiations and somewhat of a feud between Comcast and ESPN over carriage of ESPNU. On that same date, ESPNU reached a new carriage agreement with DirecTV, which moved the channel from the satellite provider's add-on "Sports Pack" to its basic "Choice" package on July 1, 2009, swapping channels and packages with ESPN Classic. Cablevision added ESPNU to its systems on March 23, 2010. ESPNU is carried on PlayStation Vue and Sling TV. Outside the United States, ESPNU became available in Mexico in 2017.

Dish Network lawsuit

On August 4, 2009

Dish Network DISH Network Corporation (DISH, an acronym for DIgital Sky Highway) is an American television provider and the owner of the direct-broadcast satellite provider Dish, commonly known as Dish Network, and the over-the-top IPTV service, Sling TV. A ...

sued ESPN for $1 million in a federal lawsuit, alleging that ESPN breached its contract by not extending the same carriage terms that the programmer provided to Comcast and DirecTV for ESPNU and ESPN Classic. The lawsuit claims ESPN violated the " Most Favored Nations" clause. The next day, ESPN announced it would fight the lawsuit and said in a press release: "We have repeatedly advised Dish that we are in full compliance with our agreement and have offered them a distribution opportunity with respect to ESPNU and ESPN Classic consistent with the rest of the industry. We will not renegotiate settled contracts and will vigorously defend this legal action, the apparent sole purpose of which is to get a better deal." Dish Network moved the channel from its "Classic Gold 250" package to its "Classic Bronze 100" package on September 30, 2009. However, it claimed that the move had nothing to do with the lawsuit.

Coverage rights

ESPNU has rights to sporting events from the following collegiate athletic conferences: * American Athletic Conference *

Atlantic Coast Conference The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate athletic conference located in the eastern United States. Headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina, the ACC's fifteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Associa ...

(ACC) * Big 12 Conference * Big Ten Conference * Ivy League * Mid-American Conference (MAC) * Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) * Missouri Valley Conference * Missouri Valley Football Conference *

Pac-12 Conference The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its College football, football teams compete in the NCAA D ...

* Southeastern Conference (SEC) *

Southwestern Athletic Conference The Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) is a collegiate athletic conference headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, which is made up of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the Southern United States. It participates in t ...

(SWAC) *

Sun Belt Conference The Sun Belt Conference (SBC) is a collegiate athletic conference that has been affiliated with the NCAA's Division I since 1976. Originally a non-football conference, the Sun Belt began sponsoring football in 2001. Its football teams participa ...

* Western Athletic Conference (WAC) *

West Coast Conference The West Coast Conference (WCC) — known as the California Basketball Association from 1952 to 1956 and then as the West Coast Athletic Conference until 1989 — is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with NCAA Division I consisting of ...

(WCC)

List of programs broadcast by ESPNU

Current

Studio

*''ESPNU Bracketology'' (2006–present) *''ESPNU Coaches Spotlight'' (2006–present) *''Give 'N Go'' (2007–present) *''Inside the Big East'' (2006–present) *''ESPNU Inside the Polls'' (2005–present) *''ESPNU Recruiting Insider'' (2006–present) *''

'' (2006–present) *'' College Football Live''

Live sports programs

*''ESPNU College Baseball'' (2005–present) Regular Season & select NCAA Tournament games LIVE *''

ESPNU College Basketball ''ESPNU College Basketball'' is a broadcast of NCAA Division I college basketball on ESPNU. Current play-by-play announcers *Jay Alter * Dave Armstrong *Jordan Bernfield *Allen Bestwick *Brock Bowling *Mike Couzens * Mike Crispino *Ted Emrich ...

'' (2005–present) *'' ESPNU College Football'' (2005–present) *''ESPNU College Hockey'' (2005–present) Coverage of the Men's DI NCAA tournament regionals and the Women's National Collegiate Frozen Four (since 2021); select regular season games from the Big Ten (since 2013) and Hockey East (beginning 2022) *''ESPNU College Lacrosse'' (2005–present) Includes D1 Men's Tournament until Semis when it moves to ESPN 2. *''ESPNU College Soccer'' (2005–present) NCAA D1 Men's Semifinals Finals & Women's Semifinals & Finals as well as select men's & women's regular season games *''ESPNU College Softball'' (2005–present) Regular Season & select NCAA Tournament games LIVE *''ESPNU College Volleyball'' (2005–present) Women's games as well as Beach Volleyball Tournament Day 1 *''

ESPN Megacast ''ESPN Megacast'', formerly known as ''ESPN Full Circle'', is a multi-network simulcast of a single sporting event across multiple ESPN networks and serviceswith each feed providing a different version of the telecast making use of different featu ...

'' (2006–2007 as ''ESPN Full Circle'', 2015–present) *'' High School Showcase'' (2005–present) *''

NHL on ESPN The broadcasts of National Hockey League (NHL) games produced by ESPN have been shown on its various platforms in the United States, including ESPN itself, ABC, ESPN+, ESPN2, ESPNEWS, ESPNU, and Hulu. Since 2021, games have been broadcast under ...

'' (2022–present) - Playoff broadcasts *'' NBA on ESPN'' (2015–2017?) - Playoff broadcasts *'' NBA G League'' (2015–present) Mainly playoff games or G League showcase (since no fans are allowed to watch live at the stadium) *'' International Champions Cup'' (2018–present) When there is more than one game on or an early morning game in United States Local Time *'' United Soccer League'' (2018–present) a secondary network for the game of the week when ESPN2 or ESPNews has a live event at the games start *'' FIL World Lacrosse Championships'' (2018–present) *'' ESPN Radio TV Broadcasts'' Only when ESPNews has a planned live sports "game" event cuts off there coverage of the broadcast will it be on ESPNU. *'' Formula One'' (2018–present) Live Telecast of Sky Sports F1 Grand Prix Practice 2 Coverage Only as ESPN 2 airs Practice 1 & Qualifying Sessions with ESPNews & Major Races On ESPN/ABC *''

Pan American Games The Pan American Games (also known colloquially as the Pan Am Games) is a continental multi-sport event in the Americas featuring summer sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The competition is held ...

'' (2011, 2015 & 2019) English coverage of the games when ESPN 2 or ESPN has other sports coverage. Just a loop around of the main events/matches going on at that moment, however every match is in Spanish only on ESPN 3 *''

Summer of Next Summer is the hottest of the four temperate seasons, occurring after spring and before autumn. At or centred on the summer solstice, the earliest sunrise and latest sunset occurs, daylight hours are longest and dark hours are shortest, with ...

'' (2013–present) Showcases the best High School Athletes in the semi-finals & championship matches of some of the best tournaments in High School Lacrosse, Basketball, Softball, & Baseball. It ends with the best High School Football teams, players & games in the first weekend of the High School Football season with a three day event on the ESPN Networks. *'' The Basketball Tournament'' Quarterfinal matches that ESPN or ESPN 2 can not show due to other sports. *''

Microsoft Excel Collegiate Challenge The Microsoft Excel Collegiate Challenge (MECC) is a Microsoft Excel esports competition, sponsored by Microsoft. Started in 2021, the competition is a spin-off of the Financial Modeling World Cup for college students. Contestants solve problems, ...

'' Live annual competition with more than 2,800 registered students from 93 countries and 596 universities and colleges.

Original series

*''Faces of Sports'' (2005–present) *''Honor Roll'' (2005–present) *''The Season: Ole Miss Football'' (2018–present)

Former

*''

Summer House A summer house or summerhouse has traditionally referred to a building or shelter used for relaxation in warm weather. This would often take the form of a small, roofed building on the grounds of a larger one, but could also be built in a garden ...

'' (2006–2007) *''The U'' (2005–2006) *''UNITE'' (2012–2013)

References

External links

ESPNU official website

ESPNU program listings
{{DEFAULTSORT:Espnu Companies based in Charlotte, North Carolina ESPN media outlets Disney acquisitions The Walt Disney Company subsidiaries Television channels and stations established in 2005 English-language television stations in the United States ESPN College Basketball College sports television networks