SAN JOSE, Calif.—Roku and X Games are expanding their U.S. streaming partnership in a new multi-year rights deal that brings MonoPay X Games League (XGL) exclusively to Roku Sports Channel.

The agreement marks a major step in the growth of X Games as it launches its new professional, team-based league format. Beginning in 2026 with the inaugural summer season, followed by the first winter season in 2027, the league will stream free to fans nationwide on Roku Sports Channel. Roku will offer complete live coverage across each event.

The first-ever MoonPay X Games League Draft will also stream for free on Roku Sports Channel, broadcasting live from COSM in Los Angeles on March 12.

The expanded partnership builds on significant audience growth between Roku and X Games over the past two years. During the most recent X Games Aspen, Roku delivered 149% year-over-year growth — outpacing total TV platform growth of 105%. Ninety-one percent of households that streamed X Games on Roku were new viewers compared to the prior year. Female viewership on Roku grew 233% year-over-year.

“We’re proud of the partnership we have already built with X Games, bringing these exhilarating competitions to millions of homes and helping new fans discover this iconic sports league,” said Joe Franzetta, head of sports, Roku Media. “We look forward to collaborating further to bring this exciting new format to die-hard viewers and a new generation of fans.”

The league introduces a global, team-based format across skateboarding, BMX, snowboard, and ski disciplines, featuring both men’s and women’s competitions. The league represents the next evolution of X Games — structured seasons, team ownership, drafts, and a consistent media home built for streaming.

“This league was built for the next generation of sports fans,” said Jeremy Bloom, CEO of X Games. “Our audience is young, digital, and streaming-first. Roku has proven it can grow that audience in a meaningful way. Expanding this partnership around MoonPay X Games League is a strong signal of where our business is headed and the momentum behind the league.”

Roku Sports Channel is available free through The Roku Channel — no subscription required. The Roku Channel is available on Roku devices and TVs, TheRokuChannel.com, iOS and Android devices, Amazon Fire TV, Samsung TVs, Google TVs, and other Android TV OS devices.

SAN JOSE, Calif.—Roku today announced The Roku Channel will be the exclusive U.S. home of X Games Aspen and major X Games events next summer.

The games will livestream on Roku’s recently launched Roku Sports Channel. Roku also has launched an X Games TV free, ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) channel and will curate a dedicated X Games Zone, launched leading up to live events, where fans can browse, discover and stream everything X Games from a single destination. The zone will offer highlights, clips, interviews and archival content, the company said.

“This partnership with X Games is the perfect marriage between content and distribution—more than half of The Roku Channel’s monthly FAST audience are between the ages of 18 and 49, and the X Games have built a lifestyle brand that sits right at the intersection of sports and youth culture,” Roku Media Head of Sports Joe Franzetta said. “We look forward to using the reach of Roku to make these competitions—and the athletes at the heart of it all—accessible to millions of viewers for free.”

X Games Aspen, set for Jan. 23-25, 2025, in Aspen, Colorado, will witness some of the world’s best action-sports athletes competing in ski and snowboard events. An additional X Games will be held this summer.

“As the new CEO of X Games, I’m thrilled to announce this partnership with Roku, a platform that shares our commitment to delivering the best possible experience for our athletes and fans,” X Games CEO Jeremy Bloom said. “This collaboration ensures that the world’s premier action sports events will reach a broader audience, while celebrating the brilliance, creativity and passion of the incredible athletes who make the X Games the ultimate stage for action sports.”

The Roku Channel is available to stream for free with no subscription or sign-up required. Audiences can watch the channel on Roku devices or TVs. It is also accessible at TheRokuChannel.com on iOS and Android devices, Amazon Fire TVs, Samsung TVs and Google TVs and other Android TV OS devices.

More information about X Games Aspen is available on XGames.com.

LOS ANGELES—Action-sports property X Games has partnered with streaming channel creator and distributor Frequency on the launch of a new free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) channel.

“We’re excited for fans of the X Games and action sports to have 24/7 access to X Games content on our own branded channel,” X Games president and chief operating officer Scott Guglielmino said. “By partnering with Frequency and the powerful Studio toolset, we’re able to not only seamlessly bring our action-sports content library to our audience, but also extend distribution of and access to our worldwide live events portfolio.”

The streaming channel will offer a mix of X Games global live events and content from its extensive content library spanning 30 years, Frequency said.

“The X Games brand is very strong in the sports world, and we’re thrilled to be able to power its first action in FAST,” Blair Harrison, CEO and founder of Frequency, said. “Sports is a category that we believe will see exponential growth in streaming television and X Games will be able to reach new audiences through this channel. Frequency’s expertise with live events, automation capabilities and commitment to aesthetically pleasing viewer experiences will provide enormous value as X Games scales its distribution footprint with Studio.”

X Games, acquired by MSP Sports Capital from ESPN in 2022, will announce distribution for the X Games FAST channel at a later date, to coincide with its major live events in 2025.

More information is available on the company’s website.

BRISTOL, Conn.—At a time when some major sporting events like the Olympics have been reporting disappointing ratings, similar problems did not plague the return of ESPN’s X Games Summer Competition in mid-July. 

The event was cancelled last year as a result of the pandemic but in its July 2021 return,  ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC experienced double-digit viewership increases on television and triple-digit growth on @XGames social and digital media platforms, ESPN reported on July 26. 

X Games 2021 telecasts, totaling 15.5 hours of content, saw a 13% bounce in TV viewing versus X Games Minneapolis in 2019. 

On the social media front, X Games 2021 delivered more than 105 million video views – a 439% increase from X Games Minneapolis 2019 – and 326 million impressions across TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat, which drove an increase of 318% versus 2019.

Following the success of X Games Aspen 2021 on TikTok, X Games once again teamed with the platform to stream 17 competitions and feature a #XGamesMode banner on the TikTok discover page from July 14-16. This resulted in 1.9 million live views on TikTok, adding to the total X Games 2021 livestream views of 6.75 million across all social platforms.

X Games 2021 also delivered more than 105 million video views (+439% from 2019) and 326 million impressions (+318%) across its TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat

The #XGamesMode hashtag on TikTok added more than 400 million views over the week of X Games 2021 and has currently surpassed 2.2 billion total views

Internationally, X Games 2021 was syndicated in 192 countries and territories and to more than 500 million homes.

Filmmaker Chris Ray has made a career out of capturing epic shots.

From his beginnings in the skate industry to his work on the viral hit ‘Pipedream’ which saw Robbie Maddison surf waves on a dirt bike in Tahiti and garnered 30 Million views, Ray’s run and gun style of filming has made him successful. But what began with skating has quickly expanded into work with companies like DC Shoes, NFL Films, Ford, GoPro, ESPN and many more.

“I do so much outside of skateboarding now – commercials and so many other things,” explains Ray, who shot his first skate video in eighth grade. “This reminds me of where I came from. I owe a lot to skateboarding.”

Ray returned to his roots to compete in the X Games: Real Street 2019, an all-street skateboarding video contest. His one-minute video and collaboration with skater Chase Webb earned Ray his second gold and the fifth overall medal of his X Games career.

“I’ve always enjoyed doing Real Street because it’s the only contest that really gives the skater and the filmmaker a platform and an opportunity to win a gold medal,” says Ray. “I think that’s pretty rare anywhere. This video took us about six months to shoot. Chase was the underdog of this contest, so to walk away with a Gold feels even better.”

In the winning video, Ray used a long lens to capture ‘next level’ tricks on rails that were kinked, curved, and huge! Or in the words of one commenter, “Someone call Master Splinter... I found a Shredder.” Ray’s cinematography let Webb and the skating speak for itself.

“It’s a 60-second edit, but I try and make it feel as if it’s a full video,” says Ray. “It has a start; it has a finish. I try to work around the skater or the athlete and have my equipment ready to go. Everything needs to be pretty run and gun. I would hate to go on a shoot and say ‘oh wait, hold on guys. I need to get this ready.’ I just want to be ready to go.”

Being ready to respond to events around him has established Ray as a highly sought after filmmaker. While he continues to lead the video strategy for major skate brand, DC Shoes, Ray is now filming with many companies, but one he's idolized for a long time, NFL Films. In his kit, he trusts products he knows will be ready to perform when he needs it. In Ray’s run and gun kit, he includes a RED Epic, Core batteries, and for shots that need a long lens and ultra-stability, he chooses the Cartoni Focus 22.

“The Focus 22 is my go-to tripod,” says Ray. “That’s important to me because a lot of the cameras I’m using these days, like the Red Epic, are not very good for going handheld for skateboarding. When I’m using a long lens, that’s when the Focus 22 comes in. It's perfect. I remember when I switched from a bad tripod to a Cartoni, and it was just like my camera was floating in clouds. That’s what you want. You don’t want something that is fighting your shot or is going jerk mid-trick. Using a tripod that moves seamlessly with my camera has been huge for me. “

Having the right gear helps Ray gets the shot, but he credits his success to doing what he loves and taking chances.

“It’s funny because I always want to say no when I’m approached with a new opportunity because the scariest thing in the world is when you have the opportunity to realize your dream. You have to be brave enough to seize those opportunities and take those chances.

Manios Digitalis the exclusive US distributor of Cartoni.To follow Chris Ray, visit chrisrayfilms.com.

MINNEAPOLIS—Throughout its more than two decades in existence, ESPN’s X Games has proven to be a fertile ground for technological innovation and creativity. This summer’s games from Minneapolis, which were took place July 13–16 from the new U.S. Bank Stadium, proved no exception, marking the first time the network presented the telecast with an added option: a collaboration with Samsung Electronics and Los Angeles-based visual effects company Digital Domain that included immersive virtual reality streams of three X Games disciplines. Namely, the Skateboard Vert, BMX Street and Skateboard Street Amateurs were aired, live and exclusively, to 48 countries on Samsung Gear VR via the Samsung VR app.

X Games Minneapolis will go down as a notable event on the ESPN timeline for its inclusion of live VR. The screen pictured was inside the B-unit that was employed by Digital Domain.

This year’s X Games were also presented as a traditional TV production on ESPN, with support from Studio City, Calif.- based Echo Entertainment, with those two entities joined by Samsung and Digital Domain for the VR broadcast; Digital Domain handled VR production’s staffing and equipment, and used Echo’s B unit.

TRIO OF EVENTS
Digital Domain captured the VR content via six 360-degree cameras for the live production, according to Sam Reisner, staff software engineer with the ESPN Advanced Technology Group. “There has been very little live VR coverage,” he said, “and that live coverage is where the interest in this project lies.”

The three live VR events were exclusive to the Samsung VR headset that operates via the app, and were fully-produced shows “that included various fixed and roving cameras with specialty angles, such as a spider-view shot and telescoping tower at ground level,” said Reisner.

The six cameras used for the VR broadcast are a proprietary technology created by Digital Domain.

Graphics and replays were added within that 3D environment, “which gave us a fully-immersive, produced experience for the three live events,” he said, as well as replays on the app that were shot by ENG crews and edited in VR, then distributed on demand via the platform.

When Digital Domain captured the feeds from all six cameras—all of which were built in-house—“they were worked into a standard UHD 4K switcher, allowing their engineers to switch the cameras and cut and/or dissolve the angles, as well as key in graphics and position 2D graphics in the sphere,” Reisner said. “Then, the top bar across screen with timing, scoring and standings were created in house.”

Digital Domain then took all of the feeds and stitched them together, live, and switched them to a 4K HD signal that represented the whole 360-degree view that mapped out into a rectangle. “That made the producer able to present the video like any new HD video, in terms of transport, recording, streaming and switching,” Reisner said. “A few years ago, that was something that you couldn’t do live; but now they can, and it provided a key element of the broadcast.”

The B-unit housed an EVS switcher, Digital Domain’s 360 proprietary video processing system, as well as a Vizrt graphics system that was also used on the standard 2D broadcast.

A camera tower that was kept at about head height was employed by Digital Domain during the live VR broadcast.

FLEXIBILITY WAS KEY
Speaking of 2D, the Digital Domain VR system was also used to take in a 2D video feed and place it on a Jumbotron billboard.

“During the actual runs, we took the video from Echo’s production truck and showed it on the virtual Jumbotron, beside the action,” Reisner said. “Even though we had some amazing camera locations, we wanted to be sure that we showed alternate shots and replays within the Jumbotron.”

There was also an audio console taking a MADI feed from Echo from the traditional TV broadcast, with Digital Domain creating its own mix. And ESPN had the talent mic-ed, with additional audio feeds to mix in to the broadcast.

Distribution was handled by Digital Domain via a standard IP circuit at the stadium that transported the content to the Samsung Cloud in multiple bit rates (depending on available bandwidth), then distributed it through Samsung’s Live VR and its app.

Reisner said that ESPN has considerable expertise in distributing content that it gains via its streaming platforms, “and we leverage it in broadcasts like the X Games.”

He added that it was a “treat” to work in the new stadium. “One of the great things about the X Games is that we basically get to build the courses and layout them out how and where we want to,” he said. “It was fantastic to have such a flexible setup and it contributed to the success of the broadcasts.”

SAN MATEO, CALIF.—GoPro has integrated Periscope into its first-person video cameras to enable instant live streaming to the nine-month-old platform. GoPro said its Hero4 Black and Silver users could now broadcast live to Periscope directly from their cameras. The integration allows Periscope users to toggle between broadcasting from an iPhone camera to their GoPro, directly from the phone screen, GoPro said.

GroPro likened the setup to a “production switchboard,” allowing users to flip between two different camera angles. It said GoPro will still record locally on the micro SD card while broadcasting through Periscope. GoPro said that the Periscope broadcast functionality is available only on iOS 8.2 on iPhone models 5s 6 and 6+, but viewable from “any platform.” 

The live Periscope broadcasts can be shared directly to Twitter’s home timeline, enabling GoPro users and Periscope broadcasters to expand their reach to their Twitter followers. GoPro will be highlighting the partnership at this week's X Games in Aspen, Colo.