Behind the Mic: Social Media Notable Omar Raja Signs With ESPN; SportsCenter Shuffles Daytime Talent By Kristian Hernandez, Associate Editor
Friday, January 10, 2020 - 2:43 pm
Print This Story
Story Highlights
Behind the Mic provides a roundup of recent news regarding on-air talent, including new deals, departures, and assignments compiled from press releases and reports around the industry. In this week's edition, House of Highlights' founder joins ESPN, the network moves around faces of their daytime SportsCenter shows, and the postseason edition of NFL Countdown gains a NFL head coach.
ESPN has added Instagram star and House of Highlights founder Omar Raja has joined ESPN as digital and social content commentator, a role that will encompass multi-platform talent appearances and strategic social programming.
Raja will continue to have a direct relationship with fans, injecting his voice - and the fun and personality that he is well known for - into ESPN's digital and social content across all sports. His first appearance on ESPN platforms will be as a guest on Countdown to the CFP Championship on Monday, Jan. 13, ahead of the College Football Playoff National Championship.
Moving forward, Raja will be the leading voice behind ESPN's SportsCenter Instagram account and will play a key role in new exclusive content offerings on the No. 1 sports app in the U.S., the ESPN App. He will also be a key contributor to ESPN's NBA digital and social content, including a new Hoop Streams live show with co-hosts Chiney Ogwumike and Christine Williamson. The weekly studio show premieres on Wednesday, Jan. 15 at 6:30-7 p.m. ET and will focus on culture and viral moments across basketball. It will be the first show produced from ESPN's new Studio E in Bristol, CT. dedicated exclusively to its growing digital content and shows. The show will be available to stream live on Twitter, YouTube, and the ESPN App.
I'm very excited to join the ESPN digital and social team and help elevate the amazing product they've already built, said Raja. After meeting with Jimmy Pitaro, Connor Schell, and Ryan Spoon, I knew the opportunity at ESPN was incredibly special and I genuinely can't wait to get started.
Joining Raja will be a team of four digital and social content specialists that will work alongside ESPN's existing team to support its presence on social platforms and areas of growth such as TikTok, Instagram, soccer, and high school sports. The team will also bring industry-leading expertise in user-generated content strategy and social community building to expand on ESPN's success in reaching the next generation of sports fans.
Omar's distinct, edgy and authentic voice resonates perfectly with those we reach across digital platforms, and we're excited to have him play a key role in creating fun content and strengthening our connection with fans across our entire digital footprint, said Ryan Spoon, SVP of Digital and Social Content, ESPN. Thanks to the hard work and dedication from the team, we're coming off of an incredibly successful year of growth and leadership, fueled by audience expansion among younger and female fans. With the resources and the reach and scale of ESPN behind them, Omar and his team will be adding fuel to the fire.
Raja founded House of Highlights in 2014 while he was a student at University of Central Florida as a way to share video clips of moments both on and off the court with his friends. The Instagram account quickly gained a following and, in just five years, has built a community of both a younger audience of sports fans and superstar athletes and celebrities like LeBron James and Drake. In 2015, Bleacher Report acquired House of Highlights and hired Raja. At Bleacher Report, Raja and team expanded the brand and business, building one of the most followed U.S. sports media accounts on Instagram that reached an all-time high 15 million followers last year. Raja has been named to numerous lists recognizing visionary leaders that are making an impact on the industry, including one of Fast Company's Most Creative People in Business, an Agent of Change by Hashtag Sports, and to Digiday's Changemakers
Daytime editions of SportsCenter will see some new anchor pairings as well as a familiar duos in different timeslots beginning the second week in February.
With Cari Champion's pending departure, the noon ET SportsCenter will no longer be a bicoastal show and instead will originate completely from Bristol, CT, with Elle Duncan and Matt Barrie helming the newly-expanded 90-minute Monday-Thursday episodes. Hannah Storm and Jay Harris will handle Friday's noon shows in addition to weekend SCs beginning at 9 a.m. or 10 a.m., while Duncan and Barrie will be on the Sunday 7 a.m. show.
The Thursday, Friday, and Saturday 7 a.m. SC will be anchored by Nicole Briscoe and Randy Scott and David Lloyd shifts from the daily noon show to handle Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday 7 a.m. shows where he will be joined by Storm on Mondays and Toni Collins the other two days
ESPN's Postseason NFL Countdown will travel to the College Football Playoff National Championship in New Orleans for two shows during the NFL Divisional Playoff Weekend, Jan. 11-12. The Saturday (10 a.m. ET) and Sunday (12 p.m. ET) editions of Countdown hosted by Sam Ponder and featuring ESPN's full set of analysts and experts at Jax Brewery (600 Decatur Street) will be part of ESPN's extensive coverage of both the NFL and college football playoff weekend.
Ponder will host a two-hour show on Saturday and the usual three-hour edition on Sunday in the heart of the French Quarter with Tedy Bruschi, Matt Hasselbeck, Randy Moss, Rex Ryan, Louis Riddick, Chris Mortensen, and Adam Schefter.
New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton will
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
Behind the Mic: Social Media Notable Omar Raja Signs With ESPN; SportsCenter Shuffles Daytime Talent By Kristian Hernandez, Associate Editor 
