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Cable Television Network
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National
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Bristol , Connecticut , USA <br> San Francisco , California , USA
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The Walt Disney Company (80%)<br> Hearst Corporation (20%)
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George Bodenheimer , President, ESPN, Inc
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September 7 , 1979
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Scott Rasmussen and Bill Rasmussen
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The Worldwide Leader in Sports
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Entertainment and Sports Programming Network <br> ESP (never used on air)
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espncom
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ABC / ABC Kids , ABC Family , Disney Channel / Playhouse Disney , ESPN2 , SoapNet , Toon Disney / Jetix
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, formerly an acronym for '''Entertainment and Sports Programming Network''', is an
Cable Television Network dedicated to
Broadcasting Sports-related Programming 24 hours a day. It was founded by
Scott Rasmussen and his father,
Bill Rasmussen , and launched on
September 7 ,
1979 under the direction of
Chet Simmons , who was the network's first President and CEO (and later became the
United States Football League's first commissioner).
George Bodenheimer is ESPN's current president, a position he has held since
November 19 ,
1998 ; he is also the current head of
ESPN On ABC , having been named to that position on
March 3 ,
2003 , when its was still called '''ABC Sports'''. ESPN's signature telecast, ''
SportsCenter '', debuted with the network and aired its 30,000th episode on
February 11 ,
2007 . ESPN broadcasts primarily out of its studios in
Bristol, Connecticut ; it also operates offices out of
Charlotte ,
San Francisco , and
Los Angeles which will open in 2009. The network is available in over 100 million homes in the United States and over 150 countries and territories via ESPN International. The name of the sport company was lengthened to "ESPN Inc." in February 1985.
ESPN unofficially refers to itself as "The Worldwide Leader in Sports"; the slogan appears on nearly all company media, though its origin is unknown.
The roots of ESPN can be traced to Bill Rasmussen, a television . Published in 2000
Executives from
Getty Oil provided much needed seed money and business expertise to help get ESPN started.
ESPN started with the debut of "SportsCenter" hosted by
Lee Leonard and
George Grande on
September 7 , 1979. Afterwards was a pro slow pitch softball game. The first score on SportsCenter was from Women's Tennis.
To help fill 24 hours a day of air time, ESPN aired a wide variety of sports events that broadcast networks did not show on weekends, including
Australian Rules Football ,
Davis Cup Tennis ,
Professional Wrestling ,
Boxing , and additional
College Football and
Basketball games. The U.S. Olympic Festival, the now-defunct competition that was organized as a training tool by the
United States Olympic Committee , was also an ESPN staple during this time.
Even before ESPN began telecasts, it convinced the NCAA to grant it rights to show early round games of the
NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship . The game broadcasts were extensive and helped college basketball gain a larger audience.
In 1983, The
United States Football League (USFL) made its debut on ESPN and
ABC . The league, which lasted three years and originally consisted of 12 teams, was ESPN's first taste of professional sports.
In
1987 , ESPN gained partial rights to the
National Football League . The league agreed to the deal as long as ESPN agreed to
Simulcast the games on local
Television Stations in the participating
Markets , which continues today. ''
ESPN Sunday Night Football '' would last for 19 years and symbolize ESPN's rise from novelty network to TV institution. In the 2006-2007 season ABC's ''
Monday Night Football '', long considered the showcase game of the NFL's week, began to be broadcast on ESPN. This was done to increase viewership of the Sunday night game and make it the "showcase" game.
In 1990, ESPN added
Major League Baseball to its lineup. MLB games are still on ESPN today and are scheduled to continue through 2011.
Jon Miller and
Joe Morgan were named as the broadcasters, and that team also continues to this day.
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http://sportsespngocom/nhl/news/storyid=2137098
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ESPN
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ESPN decides not to match Comcast's offer
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August 18, 2005
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The 1990s and early 2000s saw considerable growth within the company. In 1993,
ESPN2 was founded, with
Keith Olbermann and
Suzy Kolber launching the network with SportsNite.
Three Years Later ,
ESPNEWS was born, with
Mike Tirico as the first
Anchor . (Today, Tirico is
Play-by-play announcer on ''
Monday Night Football ''.) In 1997, ESPN purchased Classic Sports Network and renamed it
ESPN Classic . The latest ESPN network in the U.S.,
ESPNU , began on
March 4 ,
2005 .
ESPN International began in the early 1990s to take advantage of the growing satellite markets in
Asia ,
Africa , and
Latin America . In
Canada , ESPN, Inc. purchased a minority share of
TSN and RDS (in fact, the current corporate logo of both looks similar to ESPN's). In 2004, ESPN finally entered the
Europe an market by launching a version of
ESPN Classic , and in December 2006, it agreed to purchase
North American Sports Network . SportsCenter's primary three broadcasts each day are at 1 a.m.
ET (which re-airs usually until about noon
ET ), 6 p.m.
ET , and 11 p.m.
ET .
With the increasing costs of live sports entertainment, such as the U.S.$8.8 billion costs for NFL football broadcasts rights for 8 years, "scripted entertainment has become a luxury item for ESPN", says David Carter, director of the Sports Business Institute at the University of Southern California. "ESPN calls time out on scripted fare", Variety, vol. 407, No. 1, May 21-27, 2007, p. 22
As mentioned, William Rasmussen founded the network. Just before ESPN launched,
Getty Oil Company (later purchased by
Texaco , now
ChevronTexaco ) agreed to buy a majority stake in the network.
Nabisco and
Anheuser-Busch also bought minority stakes.''ESPN: Building an Empire'', by Stuart Evey. Published in 2005. (Evey is a former Getty executive.)
In 1984, ABC made a deal with Getty Oil to acquire ESPN. They retained an 80% share, and sold 20% to Nabisco. The Nabisco shares were later sold to The Hearst Corporation, who retain a 20% stake currently. In 1986, ESPN became part of the Capital Cities - ABC group when ABC was purchased for $3.5 billion by Capital Cities Communications. In 1995, Disney purchased Capital Cities - ABC for $19 billion and picked up an 80% stake in ESPN at that time. Disney currently holds controlling shares in the network.
,
2004 during the first ever ''
SportsCenter '' in
High Definition ]]In 2004, ESPN opened its
High Definition center in
Bristol, Connecticut . All Bristol based studio shows, including ''Sportscenter'', ''
Baseball Tonight '', ''
NFL Live '', "
NFL PrimeTime " "
Sunday NFL Countdown ", "
Outside The Lines " "
Kia NBA Shootaround ", "
NBA Fastbreak ", "
College GameNight " 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 an
NCAA Basketball game in 2002, at the
University Of Dayton Arena . The first broadcast from the Digital Center was the 11 p.m. ET edition of ''SportsCenter'' with
Linda Cohn and
Rece Davis on
June 7 , 2004.
- George Bodenheimer: President, ESPN, Inc. 1
- Sean Bratches: Executive Vice President, Sales and Marketing 2
- Christine Driessen: Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer 3
- Edwin Durso: Executive Vice President, Administration 4
- Chuck Pagano: Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer 5
- John Skipper: Executive Vice President, Content 6
- Norby Williamson : Executive Vice President, Studio and Remote Production 7
- Russell Wolff: Executive Vice President and Managing Director, ESPN International 8
The NFL On ESPN
- 1987–1989 (Exclusive Cable; Sunday Night; 2nd Half of Season Only)
- 1990–1997 (2nd Half of Season Only; Sunday Night; TNT carried early season)
- 1998–2005 (Exclusive Cable; Sunday Night; full season)
- 2006–2013 ('' Monday Night Football '')
FIFA
UEFA
ESPN Major League Baseball
ESPN Major League Soccer
- 1996–2014
ESPN Major Indoor Soccer League
The Arena Football League On ESPN
Little League World Series
- 19979 ESPN2 broadcasts started in 1997.-2014
WNBA On ESPN (Originally the WNBA on ESPN2)
PGA Tour On ESPN
- 1980(?)–2006 (Contracts with individual tournaments)
PBA Tour Presented By Denny's On ESPN
LPGA Tour On ESPN
NASCAR On ESPN
- 1981–2000 (Contracts with individual races)
- 2007–2014 (Contract with NASCAR)
The IRL On ESPN
The NHRA On ESPN
- 1980(?)–2000 (Contracts with individual races)
- 2001-2013 (Contract with NHRA)
Champ Car World Series On ESPN
The NHL On ESPN
- 1979–1988 (National television deal, agreements with individual clubs as early as 1979)
- 1992–2004
ESPN College Football
- Bowl Games : 1982— (Contracts with individual bowl games)
- ACC : 1998-2010
- Big 10 : 1979-2017
- Big East : 1991-2013
- C-USA : -2010
- MAC : 2003-2007
- Pac-10 : Selected non-conference games from 2005-2011
- SEC : (?)-2009
- Sun Belt : (?)-2007
- WAC : (?)-2009
- NCAA Division I FCS (formerly Division I-AA), Division II, and Division III playoffs (selected games) and championship games.
ESPN College Basketball
Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest : 2003-2007
In addition, ESPN holds long-term rights to
Bratz from
MGA Entertainment , beginning in
2008 .
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.
The current theme music on
SportsCenter was composed by
Annie Roboff , a composer who also co-wrote
Faith Hill 's
1998 hit "
This Kiss ."
10
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 do not even watch sports are familiar with ESPN. Often this comes in the form of a lampoon of the number of channels ESPN operates. A few examples:
- In an episode of the CBS Sitcom Yes Dear , Christine and Jimmy are in the kitchen, when Jimmy gets in the mood to have sex; Christine says, "Isn't '' SportsCenter '' on?" to which Jimmy replies, "You can't fool me!" Then he looks at his watch, realizes ''SportsCenter'' is indeed on - and leaves the kitchen to go watch it.
- In the movie '' Zathura '', Walter is watching ''SportsCenter'' 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 '' was referred to as "The Deuce" by the network.
- In the Adam Sandler remake of '' The Longest Yard '', ESPN2 broadcasts the football game between the criminals and the guards, with popular ESPN personality Chris Berman calling the play-by-play. Also Dan Patrick, another (now former) ESPN personality, plays a cop who arrests Sandler's character, Paul Crewe.
- 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; he states that the idea of a twenty-four-hour sports network would be ludicrous. This first appeared on ESPN.com .
- A common joke is to mistake ESPN for ESP . In an '' In Living Color '' skit, ESPN interviewed "next year's Super Bowl Champions" and covered other similar stories. Also, Amanda Seyfried 's character in " Mean Girls " mentions her ability to predict the weather, or "ESPN".
- ESPN is referenced in one " of ESPN).
- The film '' Days Of Thunder '' features several segments of fictional ESPN reporting, along with several actual ESPN NASCAR commentators. Tom Cruise 's character Cole Trickle claims to have learned much about NASCAR "by watching ESPN."
- Many jokes have been made by comedians about fake obscure sports that are shown on ESPN. Dennis Miller mentioned watching " Sumo Rodeo ", while George Carlin stated that ESPN showed "Australian Dick Wrestling ". On an episode of Saturday Night Live , a skit features ESPN 2 airing a show called ''Scottish Soccer Hooligan Weekly'', which includes a fake advertisement for "Senior Women's Beach Lacrosse".
- Several SportsCenter anchors are featured in the Hootie & The Blowfish video for "Only Wanna Be With You".
- In the movie '' Mr. 3000 '', Stan Ross is frequently talked about on ESPN shows like ''SportsCenter'', and ''PTI''. After Stan got 2 hits, one away from 3000, ESPN went from talking bad about him, to interviewing him and apologizing. Angela Bassett 's character, Maureen Simmons, is an assignment reporter for ESPN. The last game of the season is on ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball .
- In the movie '' Baseketball '', ESPN personalities Dan Patrick and Kenny Mayne discuss the Denslow Cup championship on Sportscenter.
- In the movie '' The Waterboy '', ESPN Sportscenter shows coverage of a University of Michigan football game as they try to use their towel boy at wide receiver in response to Bobby Boucher's success. They also cover the fictional 'Bourbon Bowl' at the end of the movie. Lynn Swann is broadcaster on the field for ESPN.
- In the movie The Sentinel, the main character wakes up and is working out in front of a TV, which Sportcenter is on.
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http://sportsespngocom/espn/news/storyid=1829996
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ESPN
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Texas toddler at least third named ESPN
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June 16, 2006
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is partially owned by ESPN. The appearance of the "BottomLine" ticker and logo are identical on both networks.]]
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