Seen on Screen: ESPN To Cover More Than 900 Div. I College Baseball Games; CBS, Turner Sports Produce Bill Raftery Doc

by Alicia Montanaro, Editorial Assistant

ESPN’s Division I College Baseball coverage will include more than 900 games throughout the 2016 season across ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPNEWS, SEC Network, Longhorn Network, ESPN3, and SEC Network +. The regular season will feature all top 10 ranked teams in multiple games, including No. 1 Florida more than 40 times. The schedule includes the American, ACC, Atlantic Sun, Big South, Horizon League, Missouri Valley, SEC, Southern, Southland, Sun Belt, and SWAC Championship games. ESPN will also provide coverage of the Division I NCAA Baseball Championship, carrying every game of all three rounds (Regionals, Super Regionals, and College World Series)…

…On Saturday, April 2 at 12:00 p.m. ET, CBS Sports and Turner Sports will tell the story of iconic broadcaster and college basketball personality Bill Raftery in the one-hour documentary, With a Kiss. With a Kiss chronicles Raftery’s family life, experience at the 2015 Final Four in Indianapolis, 35-year broadcasting career, and rise to become CBS Sports’ lead college basketball analyst. The documentary also features interviews with numerous college coaches, broadcasting colleagues, and current and former players, including Lou Carnesecca, John Thompson Sr., Jay Wright, Jim Nantz, Charles Barkley, Denzel Valentine, and more. The documentary is produced and narrated by Raftery’s son, Billy…

…On Tuesday, March 8, Time Inc.’s Sports Illustrated announced the launch of “100 Greatest Moments in Sports History” (SI.com/100greatest). The new video franchise presents 100 short-form films that explore the greatest moments in modern sports. Ranked from 1-100, the videos take viewers inside historic cultural events such as Jackie Robinson’s MLB debut and Billie Jean King’s ‘Battle of the Sexes’ victory over Bobby Riggs. Each film features commentary from SI editors along with highlights, interviews, photos, and stories from the Sports Illustrated Vault…

…The 2016 IndyCar Series season will launch on Sunday, March 13, with the Firestone Grand Prix in St. Petersburg, FL. ABC will provide a live telecast of the event with the pre-race at 12:30 p.m. ET and the green flag at 12:52 p.m. ET. The telecast will stream live on WatchESPN. Analysts and former series drivers, Scott Goodyear and Eddie Cheever, join lead announcer Allen Bestwick for the broadcast. In addition, the IndyCar Series races on ABC will feature an all-new graphics look, a new design for the scoring ticker, an upgraded “Side-by-Side” feature, and a split screen format during commercial breaks. ESPN is set to distribute the race telecasts through a combination of ESPN networks and syndication to more than 198 countries and 103 million homes…

…ESPN has arranged to provide exclusive coverage of the Invictus Games Orlando 2016 from May 8-12. The multi-sport competition for wounded, ill, and injured service members will take place at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Lake Buena Vista, FL. The games feature 10 adaptive sports: archery, cycling, indoor rowing, sitting volleyball, swimming, power lifting, track and field, wheelchair basketball, and wheelchair tennis. This is the first time the Invictus Games will be televised in the United States. ESPN’s more than 40 hours of coverage begins with the Opening Ceremony televised live by ESPN2 on Sunday, May 8…

…Live and on-demand coverage of the VIVO Indian Premiere League season (April 9-May 29) will be available in the U.S. on ESPN’s subscription streaming service, Cricket Pass. By the start of the season on April 9, subscribers can view matches on the ESPN Cricket Pass website or download the ESPN Cricket Pass app for iOS, Android, and Roku devices. ESPN has reached an agreement to make all 60 matches available for purchase via pay per view, as well. Live and replay streaming for the full season in English is now available to purchase for $29.99 at ESPNCricketPass.com.