Fox Sports Central Asia
| FOX SPORTS Central Asia | |
|---|---|
| Starring | see Cast |
| Country of origin | Hong Kong |
| Production | |
| Running time | 30 min |
| Release | |
| Original network |
Fox Sports Asia (2013) ESPN Asia (2002-2013) |
| Original release |
May 27, 2002-January 25, 2013 (SportCenter Asia), January 28, 2013 – present (Fox Sports Central Asia) |
| External links | |
| Website | |
Fox Sports Central Asia (formerly SportsCenter Asia) is the flagship sports newscast of Fox Sports Asia, launched on January 28, 2013 following the channel's launch. For sponsorship reasons, the new program was required to come up with a name and format similar to the original show.
SportsCenter Asia
SportsCenter Asia was a 30-minute sports news program, patterned after the SportsCenter USA, is the flagship sports newscast of ESPN Asia that aired every weeknight at 7:30 p.m., with repeats at 10 p.m. and 12:30 a.m. Hong Kong-time in Southeast Asia, (except in the Philippines delay telecast at 9:00 p.m. and 11:30 p.m) and at 8:30 p.m. and 10.30 p.m. across India, SportsCenter drew on the worldwide resources of ESPN to bring the latest highlights from the biggest global sports.
SportsCenter Asia was officially launched on May 27, 2002, with Jason Dasey as its original anchor. It was recognised as the region's number one show of its kind by winning the 'Best Sports Program' category at the 2003 Asian Television Awards and received a commendation for 'Best News Program' at the 2005 Asian Television Awards. Other past anchors of the program include Uday Joshi, Bethan Evans, Cheryl Liew, David Basheer and Arnold Gay. Former CNBC Asia correspondent Colette Wong became a co-anchor in March 2004 with Steve Dawson joining in late 2004, employed initially as an assistant producer. Dez Corkhill was the original executive producer and sometimes appeared on the show as a football pundit. ESPN International football commentator Dave Roberts returned to Singapore in late 2011 to take over as Senior Executive Producer for SportsCenter and other news and production programs before leaving in early 2015.
As ESPN STAR Sports was re-branded Fox Sports Asia on January 28, the show was renamed as Fox Sports Central Asia.
SportsCenter Malaysia
Starting from April 30, 2007, a Malaysia version was launched, initially in English. SportsCenter Malaysia aired immediately before SportsCenter Asia, from 7pm local-time. It promised to focus more on local sports in Malaysia but instead repeated most of the same content seen on SportsCenter Asia with only a brief domestic sports section to keep costs down. For a short time, SportsCenter Malaysia used to feature on all ESPN stations in south East Asia before being limited to only been shown on ESPN in Malaysia.
SportsCenter Malaysia had a Bahasa Malaysia version, which also repeated much of the same content shown on SportsCenter Asia. The Bahasa Malaysia program began on November 30, 2009 ahead of the launch of a Bahasa Malaysia competitor, Astro Arena, in March 2010. Former SportsCenter anchor/reporters Rashid Salleh and Edleen Ismail soon departed from ESPN to join Astro, along with many technical and production staff. On December 9, 2010, the Malaysia office was informed that the operation would be soon closing down because of a lack of funding. Senior managers Huw Bevan and Sharon Van Zwieten, visiting from Singapore, read off a prepared script to dismiss each staff member, one-by-one. The final broadcast was eight days later on December 17, 2010.
Sportscenter India
Originally a Hindi-language show, Sportscenter India first aired in English on October 6, 2003. It switched back to Hindi on July 18, 2005, before being relaunched in English on April 28, 2007. Sportscenter India featured local Indian sporting news, such as the results of cricket matches and local football (I-League). Much of the content from SportsCenter Asia was also repeated in SportsCenter India. The show has been discontinued in India right now.
Coverage
SportsCenter Asia covered mostly football, but it also shows highlights of the NBA, tennis, baseball, Formula One, and golf.
SportsCenter Malaysia had some news of Malaysia sports.
SportsCenter India also focused on football, but also devoted large amounts of time to cricket. This also covered league matches from European football and also some new from NBA. Other sports like Auto Racing, Multi-sporting events and all where India participated were covered in this news.