Raycom Sports history

Chesley retained the rights to ACC games until 1980, when the conference bought him out and sold the rights to Metrosports of Rockville, Maryland.

In the 1982 season, Raycom experimented with a cable-oriented ACC service known as ACC Ticket.

In its first year, it also acquired rights to basketball games from the Atlantic Coast Conference: some of them were syndicated to a newly launched cable sports channel, ESPN. In 1988, Raycom added Big Ten Conference games to its portfolio after acquiring Rasmussen Communications.

In 1994, Raycom Sports was sold to Ellis Communications, but remained autonomous, with its own headquarters in Charlotte.

The company also extended its contract through 1995 to gain rights to all non-network conference games.

When an investment group led by Retirement Systems of Alabama bought Ellis in 1996, the Raycom name was so well respected that it chose to rename the entire broadcast group Raycom Media.

By August 1997, Raycom lost the Pac-10 and Big 12 college football advertising sales rights to Fox Sports Networks.

In 2002, Raycom founded the Continental Tire Bowl in Charlotte.

In 2006, in accordance with Lincoln National Corporation's acquisition of Jefferson-Pilot, Jefferson-Pilot Communications was renamed Lincoln Financial Media, and the venture was renamed Raycom/LF Sports.

On November 12, 2007, Raycom Media announced its intention to acquire some of the television broadcasting properties of Lincoln Financial Media—including three television stations, plus Lincoln Financial Sports—for $583 million.

In 2010, ESPN also acquired rights to ACC football and basketball, replacing Raycom.

In 2002, Raycom founded the Continental Tire Bowl in Charlotte. It continues to operate the game, which later changed its name to the Meineke Car Care Bowl until 2011, when it became the Belk Bowl.

In 2012, Raycom Media acquired Tupelo-Honey, a producer of sports and entertainment programming.

Haines retired as president at the end of 2015.

Hunter Nickell, a former Speed Channel executive, replaced Haines as CEO in May 2016.

In January 2018, Raycom Sports announced a partnership with Blizzard Entertainment to produce a weekly television program chronicling Heroes of the Dorm—the official collegiate tournament of its video game Heroes of the Storm.