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Stadium is a
digital television Digital television (DTV) is the transmission of television signals using digital encoding, in contrast to the earlier analog television technology which used analog signals. At the time of its development it was considered an innovative advanc ...
and
internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...
sports network Sports channels are television speciality channels (usually available exclusively through cable and satellite) broadcast sporting events, usually live, and when not broadcasting events, sports news and other related programming. The first spor ...
operated as a multi-platform sports network. Stadium includes a 24/7 linear feed distributed across both digital and broadcast platforms, as well as on-demand ( VOD) digital content including additional live games and events. Stadium is a joint venture between
Silver Chalice The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team is owned by Jerry Reinsdorf, and ...
and
Sinclair Broadcast Group Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. (SBG) is a publicly traded American telecommunications conglomerate that is controlled by the descendants of company founder Julian Sinclair Smith. Headquartered in the Baltimore suburb of Cockeysville, Maryland, ...
. The network is headquartered at the
United Center United Center is an indoor arena on the Near West Side of Chicago, Illinois, United States. It is home to the Chicago Bulls of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the Chicago Blackhawks of the National Hockey League (NHL). It is named ...
in
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...
, Illinois. The service is distributed as an
over-the-top An over-the-top (OTT) media service is a media service offered directly to viewers via the Internet. OTT bypasses cable, broadcast, and satellite television platforms: the types of companies that traditionally act as controllers or distributors ...
streaming service through Stadium's website and other partners,
digital subchannel In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a method of transmitting more than one independent program stream simultaneously from the same digital radio or television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compress ...
s on broadcast television stations.


History

In March 2017, unconfirmed reports speculated that Sinclair was planning to shutter its sports unit,
American Sports Network American Sports Network (ASN) was a sports brand owned by the U.S. television station owner Sinclair Broadcast Group through its Sinclair Networks subsidiary. Formed in July 2014, the multicast network component of ASN produced broadcasts of sp ...
, and give its remaining sports rights to
Campus Insiders Campus Insiders was a college sports website and internet television service. It was owned by a joint venture between IMG College and Silver Chalice. The service was oriented towards live streaming of U.S. college sports, streaming live and replay ...
. The ''
Charleston Gazette-Mail The ''Charleston Gazette-Mail'' is the only daily morning newspaper in Charleston, West Virginia. It is the product of a July 2015 merger between ''The Charleston Gazette'' and the '' Charleston Daily Mail''. The paper is one of nine owned by HD ...
'', however, citing ASN employees, reported that the rumors of a complete shuttering were false, but that the division was planning to re-locate its headquarters, restructure its operations, and achieve "stronger, more diversified distribution." The original rumors were based upon reports of layoffs from ASN's current headquarters in
West Palm Beach West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sunset, Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic languages, German ...
, connected to the planned re-location. On April 13, 2017, Sinclair officially announced that ASN would be re-launched later in the year as part of a joint venture with Campus Insiders owner Silver Chalice (itself owned by the
Chicago White Sox The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team is owned by Jerry Reinsdorf, and p ...
), and its online sports video service 120 Sports. The new operation will be operated as linear and digital offerings; the linear service would utilize the syndication and broadcast network built out for ASN, while the digital platform would stream full-time online and through
Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
. 120 Sports would provide original studio and long-form programming to the venture. On May 1, 2017, it was announced that the new joint venture would be known as Stadium. On June 1, 2017, it was reported that Stadium would officially launch around late-July 2017. The service officially launched on August 21, 2017. In 2019, with Sinclair's expansions into
regional sports network In the United States and Canada, a regional sports network (RSN) is a cable television channel (many of which are also distributed on direct broadcast satellite services) that presents sports programming to a local market or geographical region. ...
s via acquisitions of Fox Sports Networks, a minority stake in
YES Network The Yankee Entertainment and Sports Network (YES) is an American pay television regional sports network owned by Yankee Global Enterprises (the largest shareholder with 26%), Sinclair Broadcast Group and Entertainment Studios (which owns 20%), ...
, and the establishment of
Marquee Sports Network Marquee Sports Network is a regional sports network operated by Sinclair Broadcast Group and the Chicago Cubs, launched on February 22, 2020. It is devoted exclusively to Cubs baseball, replacing a trio of channels (cable channel NBC Sports Chic ...
with the
Chicago Cubs The Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The Cubs compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as part of the National League (NL) Central division. The club plays its home games at Wrigley Field, which is located ...
, Sinclair CEO Chris Ripley said of Stadium's role in the expanded sports offerings: "That will be our national play. I don’t see it competing head to head with
FS1 Fox Sports 1 (FS1) is an American pay television channel owned by the Fox Sports Media Group, a unit of Fox Corporation. FS1 replaced the motorsports network Speed on August 17, 2013, at the same time that its companion channel Fox Sports 2 ...
or
ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...
. It's not there yet with its maturity." In 2021, Stadium began to synergize with the rebranded
Bally Sports The Bally Sports Regional Networks are a group of regional sports networks in the United States owned by Diamond Sports Group, a joint-venture company of the Sinclair Broadcast Group and Entertainment Studios. The naming rights to the network ...
, including co-producing an Opening Day launch special for the networks on April 1, and adopting its on-air graphics package for college sports broadcasts beginning in the 2021–22 academic season. The Fox College Sports cable channels were quietly rebranded as
Stadium College Sports Stadium College Sports (formerly Fox College Sports) is a group of three American sports networks. Owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group and Entertainment Studios (under the joint venture Diamond Sports Group), the three channels air college and high ...
in June, and in 2022 Stadium began to produce the national studio show ''The Rally'' for the Bally Sports channels.


Distribution

The service is distributed mainly via streaming television services and associated apps (including third-party services, as well as Sinclair's own
Stirr Stirr is an American ad-supported video streaming service owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group. The streaming service is available on the web and via apps for iOS, Android devices and various streaming TV devices, including Amazon Fire TV, Roku ...
service). The American Sports Network linear service, which was distributed as a
digital subchannel In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a method of transmitting more than one independent program stream simultaneously from the same digital radio or television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compress ...
network, transitioned to Stadium on September 6, 2017. The network has also reached deals for traditional cable distribution. Stadium also offers a subscription service, "Stadium Plus", which offers access to premium events and on-demand content (including commercial-free replays of broadcasts, and classic games). In November 2017,
Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...
acquired rights to 47 college basketball telecasts from Stadium, which stream exclusively on
Facebook Watch Facebook Watch is a video on demand service operated by American company Meta Platforms (previously named Facebook, Inc.). The company announced the service in August 2017 and was available to all U.S. users that month. Facebook Watch's original ...
and an associated Facebook page. In May 2018, Stadium partnered with
Twitch Twitch may refer to: Biology * Muscle contraction ** Convulsion, rapid and repeated muscle contraction and relaxation ** Fasciculation, a small, local, involuntary muscle contraction ** Myoclonic twitch, a jerk usually caused by sudden muscle co ...
to stream its content on the service, as well as an exclusive Twitch Stadium 2 channel that features additional commentary and analysis.


Programming

Stadium's college sports programming includes content from Conference USA,
Mountain West Conference The Mountain West Conference (MW) is one of the collegiate athletic conferences affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) (formerly I-A). The MW officially began operations ...
, the Patriot League, the
Southern Conference The Southern Conference (SoCon) is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I. Southern Conference football teams compete in the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly ...
, and the
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 ...
. Stadium's studio lineup includes: The Territory - The Territory sets the editorial cycle for the day with a fast-paced, expansive look at the sports landscape, featuring news and storylines from coast-to-coast. Sauce & Shram - Sauce & Shram showcases an irreverent and interactive conversation between Dave Ross and Tyler Jacobs along with user generated social media commentary and callers. Emerge - Emerge spotlights the best high school talent across the country, featuring athlete-submitted training, game, and social content while also featuring interviews with players and coaches throughout prep sports. Campus Insiders - Campus Insiders continues to focus on college conferences across the nation, including the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Conference USA, Mountain West, Pac-12, Patriot League, SEC, and the West Coast Conference. Each day, a different conference will be highlighted with exclusive interviews, Top 25 breakdowns, game picks and more. The Rally: Gametime in America - Gametime in America sets the live sports scene as viewers will navigate in real time through the landscape of sports in America.
Indoor Football League The Indoor Football League (IFL) is a professional indoor American football league created in 2008 out of the merger between the Intense Football League and United Indoor Football. It has one of the largest number of currently active teams am ...
, Stadium began broadcasting IFL games with the ''IFL Game of the Week'' on May 15, 2021.
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 ...
, Stadium has broadcast College Football since 2017. Currently games feature the Conference USA. Stadium, as with other networks distributed by digital multicast networks, is required to preempt three hours of its weekly schedule for educational children's programming. With the exception of ''
DragonflyTV ''DragonflyTV'' is an Emmy-Award winning science education television series produced by Twin Cities Public Television. The show aired on PBS Kids and PBS Kids Go! from January 19, 2002 to December 20, 2008. It was aimed ages 9–12. Seasons 1–4 ...
'', most of Stadium's educational shows are sports-related to minimize interruption; ''The Real Winning Edge'', ''Sports Lab'', '' Future Phenoms'' and ''
Sports Stars of Tomorrow ''Sports Stars of Tomorrow'' (''SST'') is a United States nationally syndicated sports television show about high school athletes. The show began in 2005, when it was hosted by Bill Jones. College and National Football League television analyst Ch ...
'' make up Stadium's educational lineup as of 2019. This has been discontinued since.


Notable on-air staff

* Michael Kim


Affiliates


References


External links

* {{Authority control College basketball on television in the United States College football on television Television channels and stations established in 2017 Stadium (sports network) Sports television networks in the United States Internet television channels Sinclair Broadcast Group