24 Facts About Raycom Sports

1.

Raycom Sports is an American producer of sports television programs.

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2.

Company produces sports telecasts for other entities; via Raycom Sports or related operation Tupelo Raycom, Gray produces NFL preseason games for several teams, including the Atlanta Falcons, Carolina Panthers and New Orleans Saints.

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3.

Raycom Sports was started in July 1979 by Rick and Dee Ray in Charlotte.

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4.

In 1988, Raycom Sports added Big Ten Conference games to its portfolio after acquiring Rasmussen Communications.

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5.

Raycom Sports extended its contract through 1995 to gain rights to all non-network conference games.

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6.

The following year, Raycom Sports established a radio division, acquiring the rights to the University of Illinois and Purdue University radio networks.

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7.

In 1980, Raycom Sports made what would prove to be its biggest splash when it teamed up with Jefferson-Pilot Communications to take over production of ACC basketball games.

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8.

Raycom Sports assisted ESPN2 by selling a 1995 Duke-Carolina basketball game that increased the channel's credibility with cable operators.

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9.

Raycom Sports had built a large array of broadcasting rights until the 1990s, with rights for ACC, SEC, Pac-10, Metro, Big Eight, Big 12, and Southwest conferences.

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10.

However, with the rise of cable and regional sports networks, Raycom began to lose many of its college rights to competitors.

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11.

In 1987, Raycom Sports has plans to set up an entertainment division, Raycom Entertainment, with an hour special Elvis' Graceland, which was fronted by Priscilla Presley, which was previously presented on Showtime, and the new Raycom Entertainment division would be headed by Peter G Lenz, who previously ran The Television Program Source, and picked up by 125 stations, and all 27 of the 30 markets has been all cleared, and it will have an hour weekly series in development.

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12.

Unlike other sports syndicators, Raycom controlled nearly all advertising for the broadcast, but paid stations for the airtime.

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13.

In 1994, Raycom Sports was sold to Ellis Communications, but remained autonomous, with its own headquarters in Charlotte.

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14.

In 1994, Raycom Sports first organized a pre-season event known as the Great Eight, televised by ESPN, which aimed to feature two nights of doubleheaders between regional finalists from the previous season's NCAA tournament .

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15.

In 2007, Raycom Sports began broadcasting the ACC men's basketball tournament in HDTV and broadcast 4 ACC men's basketball regular season games in HD in 2008.

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16.

In 2008, Raycom Sports lost its SEC rights to ESPN, who reached a 15-year deal to become its main media rightsholder alongside CBS.

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17.

ESPN continued to provide a syndicated package of games in a similar manner to Raycom Sports, produced via its own syndication division under the on-air branding SEC Network until the launch of an SEC cable network under the same name in 2014.

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18.

Additionally, Raycom Sports became responsible for the ACC's digital media operations and sponsorship sales.

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19.

In 2012, Raycom Media acquired Tupelo-Honey, a producer of sports and entertainment programming.

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20.

In January 2018, Raycom Sports announced a partnership with Blizzard Entertainment to produce a weekly television program chronicling Heroes of the Dorm—the official collegiate tournament of its video game Heroes of the Storm.

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21.

However, Raycom Sports will continue to serve as the ACC's RSN and digital partner, and be subcontracted by ESPN to produce event coverage for the new ACC Network.

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22.

Raycom Sports's final syndicated ACC telecast was the 2019 ACC men's basketball tournament final.

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23.

Raycom Sports was to have produced Team Racing Auto Circuit auto racing for ESPN in 2003; however, the league folded before ever actually staging any events.

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24.

Raycom Sports games were often part of the out-of-market sports packages ESPN GamePlan and ESPN Full Court, which are available on ESPN3.

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