ESPN Australia
ESPN Australia is the Australian division of ESPN, part of the ESPN International grouping. It is offered in Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and the Pacific Islands.
| Country | Australia |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Oceania |
| Network | ESPN |
| Programming | |
| Language(s) | English |
| Picture format | 576i (SDTV) 720p (HDTV) |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | ESPN Australia Pty Ltd. (ESPN Inc.) (Branding licensed from Disney Branded Television) |
| History | |
| Launched | 19 September 1995 (Optus TV) April 1999 (Austar) September 2002 (Foxtel) |
| Former names | Sports ESPN |
| Links | |
| Website | espn |
| Availability | |
| Streaming media | |
| Foxtel Go | Channel 509 Channel 510 (ESPN2) |
| Fetch Mobi | Channel 150 Channel 151 (ESPN2) |
| Kayo Sports | No fixed channel |
| Sky Sport Now | No fixed channel |
Initially, ESPN was known as Sports ESPN on the Optus Vision cable television system, and focused on sports aired by its home network in the United States, including American football, baseball, and basketball. In order to expand its local reach, it has shown an increasing number of soccer games including FA Cup, World Cup qualifying games and Major League Soccer. Also on the network schedule are rugby matches, among other sports.
ESPN Australia has also commenced showing locally produced content including Australian versions of PTI and SportsCenter. They also air a soccer discussion show Monday to Friday called ESPNsoccernet PressPass which is hosted by Andrew Orsatti.
On March 1, 2011, ESPN2 launched in Australia both in standard and high definition formats.
Since 2023, it has been the only Disney-owned network in Oceania along with Baby TV to broadcast as a linear television channel, with the Disney Channel and Disney Junior as well as Nat Geo Wild and National Geographic all having been shut down in favour of the streaming service Disney+.