ESPN was long considered the standard in American sports broadcasting, but has recently been criticized for unimaginative programming and purposely hiring polarizing, "loudmouth" personalities who are pitted against each other in the "talking heads" format that has plagued cable television news channels. It's currently seeing public backlash similar to that experienced by MTV and increasingly viewed as a running parody of itself, earning monikers such as "BSPN".
ESPN started as an alternative to standard television news broadcasts and the information found in "Sports" sections of newspapers. It began as a fairly small operation and often had to broadcast unorthodox sporting events, such as the
World's Strongest Man Competition ; international sports relatively unknown in the U.S., such as
Australian Rules Football , as well as the short-lived
United States Football League (USFL), to attract viewers. In
1987 ,ESPN landed a contract to show
National Football League games on Sunday evenings, an event which marked as a turning point in its development from a smaller cable TV network to a marketing empire, a cornerstone to the enthusiastic "sports culture" it largely helped to create. ESPN will start showing Monday Night NFL games starting in 2006.
ESPN was originally owned by a joint venture between
Getty Oil Company (which was purchased by
Texaco ) and
Nabisco . Since
1984 , the entire family of ESPN networks and franchises have been owned by ABC (the
American Broadcasting Company ) (80%) (which became part of
The Walt Disney Company in
1996 ) and the
Hearst Corporation (20%).
In 2004, ESPN opened its High Definition center in
Bristol, Connecticut . Many shows, including ''
Sportscenter '', ''
Baseball Tonight '', ''
NFL Live '', ''
College Gameday '' and others are broadcast in HD. Also, many of the games that ESPN televises are broadcast in HD. The first program ever broadcast in HD on ESPN was the
Sunday Night Baseball openner in March 2003, featuring the
Texas Rangers and the (then)
Anaheim Angels . The first broadcast from the Digital Center was the 11pm ET edition of ''
SportsCenter '' with
Linda Cohn and
Rece Davis on
June 7 ,
2004 .
ESPN has had its own theme music for quite a few years , but early on it used source music. An early theme for its flagship "SportsCenter" program was "Pulstar", an energetic electronic instrumental piece by
Vangelis from his
1976 album ''Albedo 0.39''. It would play while computer animation of baseballs, footballs, soccer balls, etc. would fly out from the center of the TV screen in all directions.
ESPN has become a part of popular culture since its inception. The name is constantly referenced throughout the media in movies and television. While the announcers may be actual personalities, in many films where there is a sporting event, the coverage is by ESPN. People who don't even watch sports are familiar with ESPN. Often times this comes in the form of a lampoon of the number of channels ESPN operates. A few examples:
- In the movie Zathura , Walter is watching Sportcenter on ESPN while Danny is pestering him, and the TV ends up being destroyed during the first spin of the game by a meteor.
- In the movie , a major dodgeball tournament is broadcast by ESPN 8 ("The Ocho"): "If it's almost a sport, we've got it!" (There currently is no ESPN 8).
- In the DVD special features in the movie , there is a skit that contains the "interview" of fictional anchorman Ron Burgundy ( Will Ferrell ) to work at ESPN in 1979. This first appeared on ESPN.com .
- In one episode of '' King Of The Hill '', Hank mentions that the Gay Rodeo is a sport that he has seen on ESPN 3.
- ESPN is referenced in a Simpson's cartoon episode; Homer flips through various channels and stops on a channel which clearly lampoons ESPN, except the network's initials are PENiS (an anagram of ESPN.)
ESPN STAR Sports
ESPN STAR Sports is a 50:50 joint venture between two of the world's leading cable and satellite broadcasters, ESPN Inc. and STAR. Combining the strengths and resources of its ultimate parent companies, Walt Disney (ESPN, Inc.) and News Corporation Limited (STAR), ESS is Asia's definitive and complete sports provider.
ESS has thirteen networks spanning the region - ESPN Asia, ESPN India, ESPN Taiwan, ESPN Singapore, ESPN Philippines, MBC-ESPN (Korea), ESPN Hong Kong, STAR Sports Hong Kong, Xing Kong Sports, STAR Sports India, STAR Sports Taiwan, STAR Sports S.E.A and STAR Sports Singapore. All eleven feeds are customised to deliver the world's premier sports events which are in line with local audience preferences. ESPN reaches over 110 million households while STAR Sports reaches over 54 million households.
Late Night Sports: With Mo and Andrew
