ESPN Goes Multiplatform at Bethpage Black

ESPN will cover the 2009 U.S. Open Championship from Bethpage State Park in Farmingdale, NY, across all of its platforms, including live telecasts of the first two rounds on ESPN Thursday and Friday.

The programmer says its U.S. Open coverage will range across 15 multimedia platforms: ESPN, ESPN HD, ESPN2, ESPN2 HD, ESPN Classic, ESPN Deportes, ESPNEWS, ESPN International, ESPN.com, ESPN360.com (international and domestic), ESPNDeportes.com, ESPN Radio, ESPN VOD, Interactive Television (ITV), and ESPN Mobile TV.

Chris Berman and Mike Tirico will host the live coverage on ESPN, along with analysts Curtis Strange, Andy North, Roger Maltbie, and Gary Koch; hole announcers Terry Gannon, Bob Murphy, Karl Ravech, Mark Rolfing, and Scott Van Pelt; and on-course reporters Bill Kratzert, Dottie Pepper, and Judy Rankin.

North and Van Pelt will anchor SportsCenter reports from Bethpage; Tom Rinaldi and Jimmy Roberts will contribute interviews and reports; and ESPN The Magazine columnist Rick Reilly will provide essays and commentaries.

On ESPN’s other platforms, ESPN.com will integrate ESPN360.com live streaming directly into the site’s front-page main engagement area for the first time with its U.S. Open coverage.

ESPN Mobile will provide live mobile-video simulcasts of ESPN’s first- and second-round telecasts via Verizon’s V Cast Mobile TV service, as well as “Tigercast”—a detailed breakdown of each of Tiger Woods’ rounds—leaderboard alerts, and video-shot packs of select golfers.