WSOP
Europe to Air on February 1st, by Dan Cypra -
Poker News Daily - 5th January 2009
Move
over, Super Bowl. There’s a new sheriff
in town. On Sunday, February 1st, the first four
of episodes of the World Series of Poker (WSOP)
Europe Main Event will air on ESPN at 6:00pm ET;
there will be eight episodes in total. The Super
Bowl, which is one of the world’s most watched
sporting events, kicks off at 6:30pm ET.
At
10:00pm ET on February 1st, an encore presentation
of the first two episodes will air on ESPN2 for
those who were watching “The Big Game.”
The WSOP Europe festivities consisted of four
separate tournaments, culminating in a £10,350
buy-in event that drew 362 players. At the end
of the day, Full Tilt Poker pro John Juanda became
just the second WSOP Europe Main Event champion
ever, joining Annette “Annette_15”
Obrestad, who won the prestigious title in 2007.
ESPN
Senior Director of Communications, George McNeilly,
told Poker News Daily, “An opportunity presented
itself to air the WSOP-Europe in prime time on
ESPN. We always strive to serve the widest variety
of sports fans and we hope poker fans tune in
for the prime time episodes.”
The
WSOP Europe tournaments were held at the Casino
at the Empire in London’s Leicester Square.
The epicenter of the city’s theater district,
Leicester Square also houses several casinos.
Doug White, ESPN’s Senior Director of Programming
and Acquisitions, commented in a press release
that the atmosphere of this event is vastly different
than the one filmed at the Rio in Las Vegas: “The
intimate look and feel of this tournament is different
from other WSOP events we produced in the United
States.” The press release explains that
players at the Casino at the Empire were seated
“in a side room, under the stairs, behind
the bar, near the roulette tables, and in front
of an ice cream shop.”
ESPN
is also employing a mobile hole card camera in
order to be able to show what players hold in
key hands no matter where they are seated. In
the past, ESPN has used the Henry Orenstein invention
only for its feature table as well as “Table
2.” Jamie Horowitz, ESPN’s Senior
Sports Producer, explained the importance of this
addition for WSOP Europe’s coverage: “We
believe the Mobile Hole Card Camera will provide
fans a great understanding of the overall story
behind the tournament, and how the players advanced
to the final table.”
Super
Bowl XLIII will be held in Tampa, Florida on February
1st. The game pits the top team from the National
Football Conference (NFC) against the top team
from the American Football Conference (AFC). The
game kicks off at 6:30pm ET and will go head to
head with ESPN’s WSOP Europe coverage. The
Super Bowl is viewed in dozens of countries around
the world and advertising spots regularly come
with a seven-figure price tag. The NFL playoffs
will enter their Divisional round this weekend,
with the Tennessee Titans, Pittsburgh Steelers,
Baltimore Ravens, and San Diego Chargers remaining
in the hunt for the AFC. In the NFC, the defending
champion New York Giants, Carolina Panthers, Arizona
Cardinals, and Philadelphia Eagles are still in
contention.
The
schedule for the WSOP Europe on ESPN2 is as follows:
Sunday,
February 1st
10:00pm: Episode #1
11:00pm: Episode #2
Sunday,
February 8th
10:00pm: Episode #3
11:00pm: Episode #4
Sunday,
February 15th
10:00pm: Episode #5
11:00pm: Episode #6
Sunday,
March 1st
10:00pm: Episode #7
11:00pm: Episode #8
The
WSOP Europe Main Event attracted all of the heavy
hitters in the poker world. The final table featured
WSOP November Nine member Ivan Demidov, who became
the first person ever to reach the final tables
of both the WSOP and WSOP Europe Main Events in
the same year; Demidov finished third in London
and second in Las Vegas for well over $6 million
total. Also seated at the WSOP Europe Main Event
final table are Daniel Negreanu and Scott Fischman.
Lon McEachern and Norman Chad will provide commentary
for the event.
The
schedule for the 2009 WSOP has not yet been released.
(Credit: Poker News Daily)
Profile
ESPN,
an acronym meaning Entertainment and Sports Programming
Network, is an American cable television network
dedicated to broadcasting and producing sports-related
programming 24 hours a day. It was founded by
Scott Rasmussen and his father, Bill Rasmussen,
and launched on September 7, 1979 under the direction
of Chet Simmons, who was the network's first President
and CEO (and later became the United States Football
League's first commissioner). George Bodenheimer
is ESPN's current president, a position he has
held since November 19, 1998; since March 3, 2003,
he has been the head of ABC Sports as well, which
has since been rebranded as ESPN on ABC (though
ABC Sports still legally has a separate existence).
ESPN's signature telecast, SportsCenter, debuted
with the network and aired its 30,000th episode
on February 11, 2007. ESPN broadcasts primarily
out of its studios in Bristol, Connecticut; it
also operates offices out of Charlotte, San Francisco
and Los Angeles. The Los Angeles office will open
at the L.A. Live complex, in 2009. The network
is available in over 100 million homes in the
United States and over 150 countries and territories
via ESPN International. The name of the sport
company was lengthened to "ESPN Inc."
in February 1985.
ESPN
unofficially considers itself "The Worldwide
Leader in Sports"; a slogan that appears
on nearly all company media, its origin unknown.
(Credit:
Wikipedia).
ESPN.com
is the official website of ESPN and a division
of ESPN Inc. Since launching in 1995 as ESPNet.SportsZone.com,
the website has developed numerous sections including:
Page 2, SportsNation, ESPN 360, ESPN Motion, My
ESPN, ESPN Sports Travel, ESPN Video Games, ESPN
Insider, ESPN.com's Fanboard, ESPN Fantasy Sports
and ESPNU.com. ESPN.com also has partnerships
with MLB.tv, NBA.com, WNBA.com, NHL.com, Baseball
America, Golf Digest, Scouts Inc., Jayski.com,
USGA.org and Masters.org.
It
also has sections devoted to certain sports including:
the NHL, NFL, MLB, NBA, NASCAR, IRL, College,
Golf and Soccer. Each section contains pages devoted
to: GameCast, Scores, Teams, Schedules, Standings,
Players, Transactions, News Wires, Injures and
Columnists pages.
ESPN.com's
primary competitors are Foxsports.com, CBSSports.com,
NBCSports.com, SI.com and SportingNews.com, but
to date ESPN.com is the most used sports website
on the internet.[citation needed]
Some
notable ESPN.com columnists are Peter Gammons,
John Buccigross, Tim Kurkjian, Chris Mortensen,
John Clayton, Andy Katz, Bill Simmons, Gene Wojciechowski,
Scoop Jackson, Pat Forde, and Jim Caple.
US
awards for Aussie TV, by Katherine Field - 6th
February 2008
(Credit: The Sydney Morning Herald)
Australian
television has come up trumps at the prestigious
New York Festivals International Television Broadcasting
Awards, with programs from the ABC, Nine and Foxtel
among the winners.
The
ABC was a standout performer at the event, which
recognises broadcast achievements across more
than 32 countries.
The
station picked up a total of seven gongs, mostly
in the documentaries and current affairs section,
including an illustrious Grand Award for Cuttlefish:
The Brainy Bunch.
The
documentary, about the brain of cuttlefish and
what they can teach us about the human brain,
aired on the ABC in March last year but received
little attention.
Another
ABC documentary Crude, about the history of oil,
won a gold world medal in the environment and
ecology category.
The
ABC's Foreign Correspondent was also a big winner,
getting four awards including the UN-sponsored
silver award for cultural issues for its India
Widows story.
Foxtel's
popular drama Love My Way, a Nine Network documentary
about the controversial sleeping drug Stilnox
and a music video from indie rocker Laura Imbruglia
were among other Australian winners at this year's
awards, which had more than 200 entries.
The
third season of the Logie and AFI award winning
Australia drama Love My Way, starring Claudia
Karvan, received the silver world medal for drama.
It
was beaten by the English TV series Wire In The
Blood.
Foxtel's
head of television Brian Walsh said: "Love
My Way is truly a defining Australian drama, one
of the finest series ever produced in this country,
and we are delighted that it has received this
highly regarded prize."
The
Nine Network's documentary The Stilnox Dilemma,
which aired on the Sunday program, picked up a
bronze world medal in the best investigative report
category.
Laura
Imbruglia, the younger sister of Australian singer
Natalie Imbruglia, was awarded the bronze medal
in the most innovative music video category for
the animated Looking For A Rabbit.
The
awards, now in their 48th year, recognise broadcast
achievement in everything from news and documentaries
to music videos and promotions.
This
year's event, judged by an international panel
of critics, had more than 200 entries.
The
awards were dominated by the US with sports network
ESPN named broadcaster of the year.
