Ascore bug(or, in an expanded form, ascore bannerorscorebar) is adigital on-screen graphicwhich is displayed at either the top orlower thirdbottom of thetelevision screenduring a broadcast of a sporting event in order to display the current score and other statistics.
The firstscore banner, which takes up the top of the screen, was used for minor league hockey broadcasts bySportsChannelNew York during its coverage of theAlbany River Ratsof theAmerican Hockey Leagueduring theNational Hockey Leaguelockout of 1994-95. It was the brainchild of director Joe ORourke, and was implemented by producer Roland Dratch and font coordinator Dave Katz. Fox then used the score banner for its NASCAR coverage in 2001. Fox then expanded the scoring banner to all sports telecasts.Fox Sports Netalso uses a scoring banner for basketball, hockey, baseball and soccer coverage, as do many other local broadcasters of sporting events.
For the 2008 college football season, Fox Sports Net adopted a new graphics package and reverted to the scoring bug on the top left-hand corner of the screen for football, hockey, and baseball, while on the bottom right-hand corner for basketball. Fox then adopted these graphics for its 2009 Major League Baseball telecasts, but retained the banner for its NFL broadcasts for that year.
A typical score BUG on a televised sporting event will consist of the station logo alongside the current score of game, and other information, such as time elapsed.
The firsttelevision networkin the United States to utilize ascore bug(digital on-screen graphic) wasABC, which used one on the telecast of theevent. A transparent digit counted down the number of laps remaining in the race. A similar bug was used during ABCs telecast of the 1994Indianapolis 500and 1994Brickyard 400. ABC also incorporated the score bug for its1994 World Cupcoverage, providing the time and score of the game as well as enabling advertisersponsorshipto broadcast games without interruption. Later that fall,Foxintroduced a full-score bug for its, known as theFoxBox, as did cable networkESPN. ABC expanded theirs toMonday Night Footballin1997CBSintroduced theirs upon reassuming broadcast rights to the NFL in the fall of1998, andNBCin2001during its coverage of theXFL.
Beginning withCBS Sportss coverage ofSuper Bowl 50on February 7, 2016, the score banner used for the networksNFLbroadcasts was moved to the bottom of the screen.
Score bugs also appear in manysports video games, such as those in theMadden NFL,NBA 2KandMLB: The Showseries, acting the same way as their real-world television counterparts.
The networks ofTurner Broadcasting Systemused traditional score bugs untilTBSbegan broadcasting the2007 Major League Baseball Division Series, in which they converted to a top screen banner. ESPN began using a banner starting with the2006 FIFA World Cupand, a bottom-screen banner for NBA and AFL telecasts and in 2007, a top-screen banner for NASCAR and baseball telecasts, plus a center-screen bug for itsMonday Night Footballtelecasts in 2006 and 2007 before switching to a bottom-screen banner in 2008. Starting in 2007, the channel began using banners for its college football and college basketball telecasts. In addition, ESPNs college sports telecasts added two (lacrosse), three (college football) or five (college basketball) yellow stripes, representing the timeouts the team has left to use on the banner. Timeout indicators were also added for ESPNsMonday Night Footballtelecasts, beginning with Week 4 of the2009 NFL season. In 2006, CBS began using a bottom-of-the-screen banner forNCAAbasketball telecasts, but retained the traditional box for all NFL broadcasts, but as of 2009[update]uses a banner for college football and NFL games at the top of the screen. Sibling networkCBS College Sportshowever, began using a top-screen banner for baseball in 2008, which later expanded to other sports, duplicating the bottom screen banners for basketball. The one exception among all the networks ismotor racing, as all of them will use scrolling banners for these races. In 2007, TBS began using a top-screen banner for postseason baseball broadcasts, and continued into the 2008 season, returning to a longer bug in 2009. In 2017, TBS switched to a much shorter score bug, also for its MLB postseason coverage.
ABC introduced a Fox-like banner, but along the bottom of the screen, forMonday Night Footballin 2005, its last year of the franchise. The network introduced a revised version on February 5, 2006, during an NBA game telecast, as well as during that days presentation ofSuper Bowl XL, which quickly became used for all sports broadcasts on the network. ABC returned to using a bug in September of that year when the networks sports division wasabsorbed by ESPN. NBC also began using a scoring banner, along the bottom of the screen like ABCs, in 2005 for its coverage ofNotre Dame footballhome game telecasts, which also quickly became used for other sports telecasts on the network.