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ESPN Regional Television, Inc., currently operating under the name ESPN Events (and also known as ESPN Regional or ESPN Plus, and abbreviated as "ERT"), is an American sports programming syndicator that is owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between the Disney–ABC Television Group division of The Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and the Hearst Corporation (which owns the remaining 20%). ESPN Regional Television is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, sharing its operations with sister network ESPNU. Prior to its purchase by ESPN, the company was known as Creative Sports, which in turn merged with Don Ohlmeyer's Ohlmeyer Communications Corporation Sports (OCC Sports). Through its division ESPN Events, the corporation also organizes sporting events for broadcast across the ESPN family of networks, including, most prominently, a group of college football bowl games. Most of ESPN's syndicated broadcasts were previously presented under the on-air name ESPN Plus. However, the brand has since been phased out from its productions in favor of conference brands, such as ''SEC TV'' and the ''Big 12 Network''. The unit produces sporting events for syndication on broadcast stations, regional sports networks; these telecasts are also available on the ESPN GamePlan and ESPN Full Court out-of-market sports packages, and since 2007, on ESPN3/WatchESPN. ==History== The company traces its history to Creative Sports, Inc., a North Carolina-based sports syndicator owned and founded by Bray Cary. ESPN Inc. purchased Creative Sports, Inc. and OCC Sports, Inc. in the mid-1990s. ESPN Regional Television was formed in 1996, through ESPN Inc.'s combination of Creative Sports and OCC Sports; the unit was originally under the direction of Chuck Gerber and Loren Matthews.〔 On March 12, 1999, ESPN Regional Television was incorporated in New York. In January 2000, Loren Matthews left ESPN Regional Television for an executive position at sister division ABC Sports. By February 2000, ERT acquired the production rights to the Arena Football League; this included responsibilities for AFL broadcasts on The Nashville Network, which had ESPN retain duties for the events in lieu of its own unit World Sports Enterprises.〔 In 2001, ESPN Regional Television moved beyond broadcasting college football bowl games, when it purchased the Las Vegas Bowl. In August 2008, ESPN Regional Television secured a 15-year broadcast rights agreement with the Southeastern Conference, assuming the conference syndication rights from Raycom Sports. ERT syndicates games involving the conference's team under the "SEC Network" brand; through the deal, some SEC games also began airing on ESPNU beginning in 2009, as well as on ESPN and ESPN2 under the "SEC on ESPN" brand. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「ESPN Events」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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