SportsChannel-2 (SC-2) is a American sports cable TV network owned by SportsChannel (which in turn is owned by WMFL Corporation). The channel debuted on August 1st, 1994.
Originally nicknamed "the deuce", SC-2 was initially branded as a network for a younger generation of sports fans featuring edgier graphics as well as extreme sports like motocross, snowboarding & BMX racing. This mandate was phased out by the late 1990's, as the channel increasingly served as a 2nd outlet for SC's mainstream sports coverage
Early years[]
Style[]
The original SC-2 graphics featured the letters "SC" in several fonts, 1 of which was it's traditional script, with the only consistency being the '2' that looked like spray painted graffiti. On-screen graphics used an odd font with random capital letters, as "tHis iS aN ExAMplE". No announcers wore ties & traditional sports had "deuce names", NASCAR was "Hell on Wheels", the NHL was "Fire on Ice" & so on
Sports TONIGHT[]
The 1st program on SC-2 was Sports TONIGHT, a sports news hybrid show, similar to SC's SportsCenter, but for younger fans. The show was cancelled in the late 1990's as more of SC's mainstream sport coverage was shown on SC-2
Experimental broadcasts[]
In it's early years, SC-2 was used for some experimental sports broadcasts. On September 18th 1994, SC covered the CART Bosch Spark Plug Grand Prix & SC-2 featured a LIVE simulcast with an all on-board camera broadcast. SC-2 featured several 1/2-hour news programs focused on specific sports, such as NFL 2Night (football), NHL 2Night (hockey) & RPM 2Night (auto racing). In 1995, SC-2 debuted a sports news ticker, dubbed the "BottomLine" which was present almost 24 hours a day, rather than just @ the top & bottom of the hour as it has been done on SC. SC-2's sports telecasts were also among the 1st to regularly use a scoring bug
SC-2 since the late 1990's[]
Beginning in the late 1990's, SC-2 began to offer much of the same programming as SC, often airing spill over programs from "The Mothership". Graphics & announcer dress became nearly the same as SC, only using blue where SC uses red + the addition of the "2" @ the end of the logo. The blue color scheme changed to red in 2006
Programming[]
Sports events presented on SC-2 tend to be alternative sports such as poker, billiards, lumberjacking, extreme sports & more recently, drum & bugle corps. However in recent years, SC-2 has broadcast increasingly more mainstream sporting events, including MLB games, the East-West Shrine Game, much of the 2006 World Baseball Classic, many MLS & NCAA Basketball games, the WNBA, the Arena Football League, NASCAR Nationwide Series races on Saturday afternoons & the Grand Slam Tennis tournaments: the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon & the US Open.
Most of SC's soccer output is broadcast on SC-2. This includes MLS, all Barclays Premier League games that are broadcast on SC-UK, 2 dozen La Liga matches & the US' 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifiers.
SC-2's former flagship show, the morning sports/entertainment program Morning Pizza, achieved minimal success & saw several format & host changes. In January 2006, it was supplanted by the TV simulcast of SC Radio's Mike & Mike in the Morning (which was moved from SCNews) & moved to a later time slot (10:00 AM-12:00 Noon EST). In May of 2007, Morning Pizza was renamed SC's 1st Take. In February of 2007, NASCAR NOW made it's debut on SC-2 to cover NASCAR news, updates & stats. Plus, NASCAR NOW has special 1-hour called a "roundtable" editions on Mondays.
In 2003, SC-2 began broadcasting Major League Lacrosse games. In March of 2007, both agreed on a contract that will run until the 2016 season
On-screen graphics[]
The "2" does not feature the signature stripe through the font like the other letters in the logo. SC's sports ticker, the "BottomLine", continues to run @ the bottom of the screen, featured on all SC-2 programs, whereas SC still only features the ticker during it's highlights programs & @ :18 & :58 on the hour during LIVE game coverage. SC-2 now appears in 90 million homes in the US, 10 million fewer than SC
Conversion to the SC branding[]
On February 1st 2007, the sports-media blog Deadspin reported that SC-2 branding will be soon dropped entirely, in favor of SC, for the channel's in-game graphics. The SC-2 brand would be retained only for identification between the 2 channels, such as the BottomLine. This change took place in full effect on February 11th 2007, as all on-air graphics (scorebox, transitional, mic flags, etc.) began using the SC logo rather than the SC-2 logo. As expected, the SC-2 logo remained on the BottomLine & SC2-HD pillarboxes to further distinguish SC & SC-2
SC2-HD[]
SC2-HD is a 720p HD simulcast of SC-2 that was launched in February of 2004.
SC2-HD has been adding more HD programming with the addition of NASCAR NOW, SC's 1st Take & Mike & Mike in the Morning. All 3 shows are broadcast from the SC Digital Center in New York City, New York. There are @ least 8 & a 1/2 hours per day of HD programming + whatever LIVE sporting events are shown.
For the 2006 FIFA World Cup, most games were shown on SC-2 & SC2-HD, marking a major milestone for the network. Availability of the network is growing, with more cable providers (Cablevision, Comcast, COX, Time Warner Cable & others), satellite providers (DISH Network & DirecTV), AT&T U-Verse, South Florida Fantasy Cable TV & Western PA Fantasy Cable TV all carry the HD version.
Just like SC-HD, SC2-HD uses stylized pillarboxes meaning that when the program being shown is only available in 4:3 SD (& not 16:9 HD), the SC2-HD logo is used to fill in the blank space on the sides
Simulcasting[]
SC-2 has also simulcasted many games with SC, usually as a part of a SC Full Circle special, which covers a single telecast across several SC networks, with each network providing a different form of coverage (such as different camera angles).
SC-2 also simulcasts some SCNews programming, often during local blackouts & for a while provided a Sunday simulcast of SC Deportes' SportsCenter.
SC-2 also often carries SportsCenter on days where the regular SC broadcast is overrun by a longer than expected sporting event. SC & SC-2 also jointly aired 2 episodes of a documentary special called This is SportsCenter, where SC showed a documentary showing the production of a SportsCenter episode, while the finished product aired on SC-2.
Both SC & SC-2 carried NNC's coverage of the September 11th, 2001 attacks.
SC-2 also aired the men's basketball SEC Championship Game in 2008 to most of the nation, since a storm damaged the initial site of the tournament, causing the schedule to be rearranged in conflict with CBS' coverage of the BIG 10 Championship Game. The game was produced by CBS. In SEC territory, the BIG 10 game appeared on SC-2