ESPN2 ESPN2 is an American sports cable television network owned by ESPN . The channel debuted on October 1 , 1993 . History . ESPN2 launched on October 1 , 1993 at 7 : 30 p . m . Eastern Time . Its inaugural program was the premiere of SportsNight , a sports news program originally hosted by Suzy Kolber and Terry Crisp . Launching with an estimated carriage of about 10 million homes , ESPN2 aimed to be a more informal and youth - oriented channel than parent network ESPN , featuring a heavier emphasis on programming that would appeal to the demographic . The youthful image was also reflected in its overall presentation , which featured a graffiti - themed logo and on - air graphics . Its initial lineup featured studio programs such as SportsNight ( which host Keith Olbermann characterized as a " lighter " parallel to ESPN ' s SportsCenter that would still be " comprehensive , thorough and extremely skeptical " ) , " Talk2 " ( a nightly talk show hosted by radio personality Jim Rome , which was billed as a sports parallel to CNN ' s " Larry King Live " ) , " Max Out " ( an extreme sports anthology series carried over from ESPN ) and SportsSmash , a five - minute rundown of sports news and scores which aired every half - hour . ESPN2 also featured several half - hour news programs focused on specific sports , such as NFL 2Night ( football ) , NHL 2Night ( hockey ) and " RPM 2Night " ( auto racing ) . Event coverage would focus on coverage of mainstream sports popular within the 18 - 34 age demographic , such as auto racing , college basketball and NHL hockey ( which was branded as NHL Fire on Ice ) , while also covering atypical sports such as BMX and other extreme sports . ESPN2 would also be used to showcase new technology and experimental means of broadcasting events : on September 18 , 1994 , ESPN2 simulcast CART ' s Bosch Spark Plug Grand Prix using only onboard camera feeds . In 1995 , ESPN2 introduced the " BottomLine " , a persistent news ticker which displayed sports news and scores . The BottomLine would later be adopted by ESPN itself and all of its future properties . In the late 1990s , ESPN2 would phase out its youth - oriented format and begin to serve as a secondary outlet for ESPN ' s mainstream programming ; telecasts began to adopt a more conventional style , and the " graffiti 2 " logo was dropped in 2001 in favor of a variation of the standard ESPN logo . On - screen graphics ( such as the BottomLine ) used a blue color scheme instead of red to differentiate it from ESPN . On February 12 , 2007 , the ESPN2 branding was stripped from most on - air presentation and replaced with ESPN : the ESPN2 brand is now solely used for station identification . Programming . Sports events presented on ESPN2 originally tended to be alternative sports such as poker , billiards , lumberjacking , extreme sports and , more recently , drum and bugle corps . However , in recent years ESPN2 has broadcast increasingly more mainstream sporting events , including Major League Baseball games , the East – West Shrine Game , much of the 2006 World Baseball Classic , regular season KHL games , many Major League Soccer games , NCAA basketball games , the WNBA , the Arena Football League and Saturday afternoon NASCAR Nationwide Series races . In 2011 , ESPN2 also acquired broadcast rights to delayed coverage for some American Le Mans Series events , with series ' major events airing on ABC . The channel has also become ESPN ' s home for tennis coverage . The showpieces are all four of the " Grand Slam " tournaments : the Australian Open , the French Open , Wimbledon and the US Open . Also featured on ESPN2 are the ATP World Tour Finals and U . S . - based tournaments , including the ATP Masters 1000 events at Indian Wells and Miami , as well as the US Open Series . Most of ESPN ' s soccer output has been broadcast on ESPN2 including Major League Soccer , Premier League and La Liga matches ; the channel also broadcast the United States ' FIFA World Cup qualifiers in 2009 . ESPN2 formerly broadcast matches of the UEFA Champions League . In 2003 , ESPN2 began broadcasting Major League Lacrosse games . In March 2007 , ESPN2 and the league agreed on a new broadcast contract that will run until the 2016 season . Simulcasting . ESPN2 has also simulcast many game telecasts with ESPN , usually as a part of a " Full Circle " or " Megacast " special , which covers a single telecast across several ESPN networks , with each network providing a different form of coverage ( such as different camera angles ) . ESPN2 also simulcasts some programming from ESPNews , often during local blackouts of scheduled national game telecasts , and for a while provided a simulcast of ESPN Deportes ' edition of SportsCenter on Sundays . In return , ESPN2 programming is often seen on ESPN during blackouts of games in certain markets . ESPN2 also often carries " SportsCenter " at times when the broadcast on ESPN is delayed by a sporting event that overruns into one of the program ' s scheduled timeslots . ESPN and ESPN2 also jointly aired two episodes of a documentary special called " This is SportsCenter " , in which ESPN showed a documentary showing the production of an edition of " SportsCenter " , while the finished product aired on ESPN2 . The documentary would usually air for two hours , where the first hour would cover the preliminary production of the night ' s show on ESPN , while ESPN2 aired ESPN ' s regular programming . The second hour usually spent time at production control while covering reaction to the night ' s developments . Both ESPN and ESPN2 carried ABC News ' coverage of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and The Pentagon ( and the related crash of United Airlines Flight 93 in Shanksville , Pennsylvania ) on September 11 , 2001 . ESPN2 also aired the 2008 SEC Men ' s Basketball Tournament championship game in 2008 to most of the nation , since a storm damaged the original game site , the Georgia Dome , causing the schedule to be rearranged and site to be moved to the smaller Alexander Memorial Coliseum . The new schedule was in conflict with CBS ' s coverage of the Big Ten Championship Game ; the game was produced by CBS . In the territory of the Southeastern Conference , the Big Ten game aired on ESPN2 .