Sports Plus Network
Sports Plus Network was a service run by SportsChannel in the late 1980s and early 1990s that filled the airtime when SportsChannel was not on the air. It was an "automated" service that featured sports news and scores displayed using NAPLPS graphics that made it look like the online service Prodigy, including a noticeable loading time for pages, which were "drawn" on the screen with primitive shapes.
The service appears to have had some similarity to teletext, but the major difference was that it was not interactive, stories stay on screen for a few seconds and it moves to the next screen.
Advertisements were placed on screen every few minutes, and were drawn with the same NAPLPS graphics, again looking very much like advertisements on Prodigy.
According to the ticker that scrolled at the bottom of the screen, the service was a joint venture by SportsChannel, Tribune Media Services, and the Associated Press.
In early 1991, the graphics used were updated.
In popular culture
The channel could sometimes be seen on a monitor in the newsroom on the set of Murphy Brown.