American Forces Network plans to launch a second 24-hour-a-day sports channel on June 1.

The channel, called AFN sports 2, will replace AFN xtra, which currently broadcasts blocks of sports alongside an amalgam of music videos, scripted and reality television programs, and late-night talk shows. Popular nonsports shows broadcast on xtra, including “Tosh.0” and “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” will move to one of the other channels in AFN’s eight-channel lineup.

AFN xtra currently features sports eight hours a day on weekdays and 24 hours a day on weekends, buttressing the full-time sports programming offered by the channel AFN sports. By converting xtra to AFN sports 2, the network boasts that it will provide 80 more hours of sports programming per week to its viewers. That figure is based on the amount of time xtra now devotes to nonsports content.

“Our last worldwide survey indicated viewers tune into sports more than any other channel on AFN, and more than half of the several thousand emails and posts we get every year are from viewers asking us to air their team or sport more often,” AFN Broadcast Center Director Dave Gebhardt said in a news release.

AFN sports 2 will begin broadcasting at 9 a.m. CET on June 1.

news@stripes.com

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