About

USA Network history, coverage, features

USA Network is an American, English-language basic cable television channel owned by Comcast’s NBCUniversal. It was founded in 1977 under the name “Madison Square Garden Sports Network” as one of the first national sports cable television channels before rebranding to USA Network in April 1980.

USA Network began by broadcasting college and other lesser-known professional sports. WWF Monday Night Raw was later introduced to the channel in January 1993, followed by WWE SmackDown, which was shifted from the sister channel SyFy to USA Network two decades later in April 2015.

The channel has a rich history of airing some of the USA’s most popular sports, including Major League Baseball, the NHL, and the NBA, becoming the latter’s first cable television partner.

The channel’s sports programming increased in 2022 following the closure of NBCSN, with USA Network becoming the main cable outlet for NBC Sports. This led to the inclusion of one of the most popular sports competitions in the world, the English Premier League, which began regularly featuring on the channel.

USA Network first began televising England’s top-flight soccer division in 2014, providing overflow coverage due to NBCSN’s schedule conflicts that focused on the Olympics. The network also participated in the coverage of the Premier League’s Championship Sunday, the final round of the English top-flight season, during which all 10 matches kick off simultaneously.

After NBCSN’s shutdown, USA Network picked up the bulk of cable TV Premier League coverage, televising matches exclusively or alongside sister channels CNBC and NBC USA. Games broadcast by USA Network are also made available on-demand on Peacock, NBCUniversal’s subscription-based streaming service.

In addition to soccer, USA Network has featured golf and NASCAR on its airwaves. The channel broadcasts in up to 4K UHD, although not all of its content is available in 4K quality. The channel also delivers original programming, popular series, and films.

As a result, it enjoys wide carriage on cable, satellite, and streaming television platforms, including Cox, Dish, DirecTV, Spectrum, Xfinity, Fubo, Hulu + Live TV, YouTube TV, and more. Availability hinges on an agreement between the network and the TV providers, which is subject to change.