ESPN Megacast


Megacast, formerly known as ESPN Full Circle, is a multi-network simulcast of a single sporting event across multiple ESPN networks and serviceswith each feed providing a different version of the telecast making use of different features, functions or perspectives. Eleven networks and services have been involved with these specials, including ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNEWS, ESPN Classic, ESPNU, ESPN Radio, ESPN Mobile, ESPN3/WatchESPN, ESPN.com, ESPN Brasil, TSN/RDS, ESPN International and ESPN Deportes.
ESPN Full Circle debuted with ESPN Full Circle: North Carolina at Duke on March 4, 2006, on the one-year anniversary of ESPNU. The game was the North Carolina Tar Heels at the Duke Blue Devils in college basketball. Five further Full Circle broadcasts were produced before the format was discontinued in 2007.
After a seven-year hiatus, full-circle broadcasts resumed under the Megacast branding in 2014. To date, the feature has primarily been used for college football since the revival.

North Carolina at Duke

The first Full Circle telecast covered the college basketball game between the North Carolina Tar Heels at the Duke Blue Devils, to honor the 1 year anniversary of the launch of its collegiate sport focused service ESPNU.
ESPN aired the game's traditional coverage, ESPN 2 featured an "Above the Rim" camera, and ESPNU featured a split-screen with the "Cameron Crazy Cam". ESPN360 offered additional stats, hosted by ESPN Radio's Jeff Rickard, Mobile ESPN featured game alerts, live updates and in-game polling for a replay of a classic Duke-North Carolina game, and ESPN.com featured live chats, in-game polling and highlight
The game was seen by an average of 3.78 million households on ESPN and ESPN2 making it the most-viewed men's college basketball game ever combining the networks. There were also two million page views on ESPN.com and one million video streams across ESPN.com and ESPN 360. ESPN's single network coverage garnered a 3.5 rating, the network's highest-rated men's college basketball game in more than four years. ESPN2's "Above the Rim" coverage generated a 0.7 rating, 40% higher than the network's per-game season average. Brad Nessler called the game along with Dick Vitale and Erin Andrews. This game is significant since it was the last time to date that Nessler called a Saturday Primetime game.

Bulls-Heat NBA Playoffs

This was the second installment of ESPN Full Circle, which aired on April 22, 2006. The official name of this one was ESPN Full Circle: Bulls-Heat NBA Playoffs and the game was the Chicago Bulls vs. the Miami Heat. The game was seen by an average of 2,648,000 households on ESPN and ESPN2, marking a 45% increase when compared to the equivalent NBA playoff telecast the previous year. In addition, ESPN.com's ESPN Motion received nearly 600,000 video streams for Bulls/Heat content. Mike Tirico called the game along with Bill Walton and Steve "Snapper" Jones and Jim Gray as the sideline reporter.

Coverage

This was the third installment of ESPN Full Circle, which aired on September 4, 2006. The official name of this one was ESPN Full Circle: Florida State at Miami and the game was a college football matchup between the Florida State Seminoles at the Miami Hurricanes. ESPN's coverage of the game averaged 6,330,000 households, making it the network's most-viewed college football game ever. It is the network's second highest-rated college football game ever . The telecast was television's most-viewed program of the night across key male 18-to-34, 18-to-49 and 25-to-54 demographics and fourth most-viewed program in households. Mike Patrick called the game along with analysis from Todd Blackledge and Holly Rowe reporting from the sideline.

Coverage

This was the fourth installment of ESPN Full Circle, which aired on October 14, 2006. The official name of this one was ESPN Full Circle delivered by The New AT&T: Florida vs. Auburn and the game was a college football matchup between the Florida Gators at the Auburn Tigers. It generated the lowest ratings of any of the Full Circle telecasts with a 3.3 rating. This was also the second college football game on Full Circle. Mike Patrick called the game along with analysis from Todd Blackledge and Holly Rowe reporting from the sideline.

Coverage

The fifth installment of ESPN Full Circle aired on March 4, 2007, a NASCAR Busch Series race held at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City. This was the first NASCAR race on Full Circle. ESPN's regular NASCAR announce team of Dr. Jerry Punch called the race along with analysis from Rusty Wallace and Andy Petree. Allen Bestwick, Mike Massaro, Jamie Little, and Dave Burns reported from pit lane.

Coverage

The sixth installment of ESPN Full Circle was on April 3, 2007 in Cleveland, Ohio. The official name of the telecast was ESPN Full Circle: NCAA Women's Championship and the game was between No. 1 Tennessee Lady Volunteers and No. 4 Rutgers Scarlet Knights. It was the first women's event presented as an ESPN Full Circle telecast. Mike Patrick called the game along with Doris Burke and reporters Holly Rowe and Mark Jones. Tennessee defeated Rutgers, 59–46, winning its seventh national title.

Coverage

BCS National Championship Game

In December 2013, ESPN announced that it would cover the 2014 BCS National Championship Game with what it branded as a Megacast:
In November 2014, ESPN broadcast that season's edition of the Iron Bowl rivalry game between the Alabama Crimson Tide and Auburn Tigers. The game was accompanied by a special simulcast on SEC Network, the Finebaum Film Room, which featured analysis by SEC Network correspondent and ESPN Radio host Paul Finebaum, Cole Cubelic, Greg McElroy, and viewer calls.

2015 College Football Playoff National Championship

The Megacast returned for the 2015 College Football Playoff National Championship;
For 2016, enhanced feeds were expanded to the College Football Playoff semi-final bowl games, the 2015 Orange Bowl and 2015 Cotton Bowl Classic. ESPN2 aired a simulcast of ESPN Deportes' Spanish-language coverage, and home and away radio broadcast feeds were carried on WatchESPN. Owing to the participation of Alabama, the Cotton Bowl broadcast additionally featured the return of the Finebaum Film Room on SEC Network, as previously featured during the 2014 Iron Bowl.
ESPN provided enhanced feeds during the 2016 College Football Playoff National Championship;
In Canada, the Film Room feed was carried by TSN2, while the TSN website carried ESPN Voices, Homer Telecast and Finebaum Film Room online. RDS carried a French language broadcast.

2017 College Football Playoff

The Peach Bowl and Fiesta Bowl semi-final games were broadcast with Command Center on ESPN2, and Skycam, DataCenter, and simulcasts with audio from the participating teams' radio networks on WatchESPN. During the Peach Bowl, played between Alabama and Washington, SEC Network featured the Finebaum Film Room.
For the championship game, ESPN2 carried a reprise of the "homer" commentary featuring Joe Tessitore, Adam Amin, Tajh Boyd, and Barrett Jones, ESPN Voices aired on ESPNU, SEC Network carried the Finebaum Film Room, ESPNews carried the Coaches Film Room, and ESPN Goal Line carried Command Center. WatchESPN carried the Mock Replay Booth, DataCenter, as well as Skycam, Pylon Cam, Taco Bell Student Section, and simulcasts with audio from the participating teams' radio networks.
In Canada, the Homer Telecast, ESPN Voices, and the Coaches Film Room were available for streaming via TSN Go.

2017 Ohio State–Indiana game

On August 15, 2017, ESPN announced it would utilize its Megacast production on its August 31 college football season opener featuring Ohio State at Indiana. ESPNews carried the "Coaches' Film Room", ESPNU carried a "homer" broadcast with Dan Dakich, Adnan Virk, and Joe Tessitore, while ESPN Goal Line carried Command Center. ESPNU also carried Field Pass, a pre-game show hosted from inside Memorial Stadium. "DataCenter", all-22, and skycam views were available on the ESPN App.

2018 College Football Playoff and New Year's Six

For the December 2017 Cotton Bowl Classic, ESPN carried the main game while the ESPN App offered All-22, Command Center and Skycam views. ESPN's other linear channels did not participate for that game because of college basketball commitments.
For the 2018 Outback Bowl, ESPN2 carried the main game while the ESPN App offered only the SkyCam view. ESPN was airing the 2018 Peach Bowl at the same time so therefore the Outback Bowl was moved to ESPN2.
For the semifinal games—the 2018 Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl, ESPNews offered the Film Room, as well as the Command Center, Finebaum Film Room, DataCenter and other feeds on the ESPN App.
In addition to these feeds, the 2018 College Football Playoff National Championship added the "Homer Telecast" with Landon Collins representing Alabama and CBS's Aaron Murray representing Georgia.

2018 Virginia Tech vs. Florida State

For the September 3, 2018, ESPN aired a six-channel megacast, with Coaches Film Room on ESPNEWS, Command Center on ESPNU, and Data Center and Skycam on ESPN3, in addition to the traditional telecast on ESPN.

2019 College Football Playoff Championship

For the 2019 College Football Playoff National Championship, ESPN dramatically reorganized the Megacast offerings. The Homer Telecasts and Finebaum Film Room were dropped. On ESPN2, replacing the Homer Telecast was "Field Pass," in which two play-by-play men, Adam Amin and Steve Levy, roam the sidelines and are randomly joined by various celebrities and analysts. ESPNEWS carried analysis from the announcing crew of Monday Night Football. ESPN Classic again carried the announcerless Sounds of the Game while ESPNU carried Command Center. Replacing the Finebaum Film Room on SEC Network, the cast of Thinking Out Loud provided live commentary. ESPN3 offered hometown radio broadcasts, two different angles of skycam, an angle from the Goodyear Blimp, a wider all-22 angle, and a combined "TechCast" that shows multiple camera angles.

2020 College Football Playoff Championship

New to the Megacast for 2020 was a "Refcast," a multi-camera feed in which officials and chain crew were equipped with mobile cameras while rules analysts held a panel discussion. SEC Network and ACC Network picked up the hometown audio broadcasts for LSU and Clemson respectively. Command Center moved to ESPNEWS while ESPNU revived the Coaches Film Room. The main telecast, Field Pass, Sounds of the Game, all-22, DataCenter and a single skycam angle were carried over as they were in 2019, with the remaining feeds dropped.. Newsweek. Retrieved January 13, 2020. It was also the final game seen on ESPN Goal Line & Bases Loaded, which was discontinued shortly after when the COVID-19 pandemic cancelled the 2020 NCAA Division I Baseball Tournament.

NFL Megacasts

In response to a 2018 agreement in which Fox would simulcast NFL Network's coverage of the 2018 NFL Draft for free over the air, ESPN, which has long held non-exclusive rights to the draft, announced it would expand its coverage for the 2018 draft to a multi-channel megacast.
ESPN has carried the Pro Bowl in simulcast with ABC since 2015. For the 2019 event, Disney XD was added to the simulcast. In contrast to college sports events, all of the simulcast partners for the Pro Bowl carry the same feed.
For the 2019 NFL Draft, ESPN, ABC and NFL Network all aired the entire draft in simulcast. ESPN's Twitter account carried a live watch party.

ESPN FC Megacasts

2017 LaCopa Semifinals and Final

From 2017 onwards, the enhanced Megacast feeds will be expanded to ESPN FC-branded broadcasts, starting with the LaCopa Semifinals and the Final.