[Rocketfan]

Starting Aug. 11 -- the opening week of the Beijing Olympic Games -- SportsCenter will begin airing live from 6 a.m. until 3 p.m. ET on weekdays.


In addition, former CBS Early Show anchor Hannah Storm is joining ESPN to host the 9 a.m. to noon block of the new live morning SportsCenter. Storm is an award-winning newscaster who has worked for CNN, NBC and CBS in her 19-year career.

The new nine-hour block of SportsCenter will feature three teams of two anchors with one update anchor in three-hour shifts. Shows will usually reset each hour with SportsCenter Right Now updates every 20 minutes each hour.

SportsCenter has been re-airing on tape in the mornings since 1996.

Also, a new SportsCenter.com will debut. Some content for the morning SportsCenters will be generated through fan interactivity from the new Web site.

And a continuous Bottom Line will air during the SportsCenters, giving viewers the latest news and scores -- even during commercials.


http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=3393816

[bigsmooth]

i like the bottom line during commercials....they have been doing that on ESPN news for quite sometime.

[LUconn]

yeah that needed to be done. The worst thing in the world is waiting 10 minutes to see your score and then it goes to commerical. And then when they come back it was obvious that the ticker never paused.

[adam42381]

yeah that needed to be done. The worst thing in the world is waiting 10 minutes to see your score and then it goes to commerical. And then when they come back it was obvious that the ticker never paused.

That always made me mad. I figured they just wanted to make me hang around a while longer until the score scrolled back through that I was looking for. Now they just need to work on timing the ticker so it doesn't give the score for a game that it's giving highlights on. Nothing kills the suspense they're trying to build during the highlights like the score showing up. "Will the Sox rally to beat the Twins?" Well, according to the score you're showing me right now, no, that will not happen since they lost 7-3...

[Sly Fox]

Tickers are designed to run on constant loop with constant updating. So it is just a matter of it being dropped in. Pausing is an interesting idea that frankly I had never really given much thought. But it would seem to be something that could be coded into the software. Running the ticker breaks has always been problematic due to sponsors objecting to something on the screen distracting from their message. But morning Sportscenters have never been that profitable with rather stagnant numbers.

As for the programming announcement, its really not that big of a deal. It is still going to be 90% repurposed material from the night before just as it is now. It just is adding in some live talent along with a few more guests (like there aren't enough already).

As for Mrs. Hicks, I've never been sold on her sportscasting. But what her role sounds like is what her husband does during golf coverage ... Sort of an emcee type of deal. She certainly can handle that aspect just fine.

[Ed Dantes]

Congratulations, SportsCenter. You're now ESPNews. Are we supposed to applaud this, or what?