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ESPN
Type Cable Television Network
Country United States
Availability National
Founder Scott Rasmussen and Bill Rasmussen
Slogan The Worldwide Leader in Sports
Owner The Walt Disney Company (80%)
Hearst Corporation (20%)
Key people George Bodenheimer, President, ESPN, Inc.
Launch date September 7, 1979
Past names Entertainment and Sports Programming Network
ESP (never used on air)
Website espn.com sister channel(s)= ABC/ABC Kids, ABC Family, Disney
Channel/Playhouse Disney, ESPN2, SoapNet, Toon Disney/Jetix
ESPN, formerly an acronym for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network,
is an American 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 the United States Football League's (USFL) first commissioner). The
current president, since November 19, 1998, of ESPN is George Bodenheimer.
Bodenheimer is also the current head of ESPN on ABC, having been named to
that position on March 3, 2003. Its 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.
History
Early years
The roots of ESPN can be traced to Bill Rasmussen, a television sports
reporter for WWLP, the NBC affiliate in Springfield, MA. In the mid-1970s,
Rasmussen worked for the World Hockey Association's New England Whalers,
selling commercial time for their broadcasts. His son Scott, a former high
school goaltender, was the team's public-address announcer. Both were fired
in 1977 and Rasmussen sought a new business venture. His original idea was a
cable television network (then a fairly new medium) that focused on covering
sports events in the state of Connecticut (for example, the Hartford Whalers
and the Connecticut Huskies). When Rasmussen was told that buying a
continuous 24-hour satellite feed was less expensive than buying several
blocks of only a few hours a night, he expanded to a 24-hour nationwide
network. The channel's original name was ESP, for Entertainment and Sports
Programming, but it was changed prior to launch.[1]
Executives from Getty Oil Co. 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, bowling, 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.
Professional sports arrive
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 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.
ESPN at one time has broadcast each of the four major professional sports
league in North America until deciding not to renew the deal with the
National Hockey League after the lockout, citing ratings for original
programming was comparable to those of NHL broadcasts.[2]
Expansion
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
European 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. [3]
Ownership history
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.[4]
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 is 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.
High definition telecasts
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.
Executives
* George Bodenheimer: President, ESPN, Inc. [5]
* Sean Bratches: Executive Vice President, Sales and Marketing [6]
* Christine Driessen: Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
[7]
* Edwin Durso: Executive Vice President, Administration [8]
* Chuck Pagano: Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer [9]
* John Skipper: Executive Vice President, Content [10]
* Norby Williamson: Executive Vice President, Studio and Remote Production
[11]
* Russell Wolff: Executive Vice President and Managing Director, ESPN
International [12]
ESPN significant programming rights
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 carries early
season)
* 1998–2005 (Exclusive Cable; Sunday Night)
* 2006–2013 (Monday Night Football)
FIFA
* FIFA World Cup: 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014
UEFA
* UEFA Champions League: 1994-2009
* UEFA European Football Championship: 2008
ESPN Major League Baseball
* 1990–2013
ESPN Major League Soccer
* 1996–2014
The NBA on ESPN
* 1982–1984
* 2002–2016
The Arena Football League on ESPN
* 1989–2002
* 2007–2011
Little League World Series
* 1997[13]-2014
WNBA on ESPN(Originally the WNBA on ESPN2)
* 1997-2016
PGA Tour on ESPN
* 1980(?)–2006 (Contracts with individual tournaments)
PBA Tour presented by Denny's on ESPN
* 2000-present
LPGA Tour on ESPN
* 1979-2009
NASCAR on ESPN
* 1981–2000 (Contracts with individual races)
* 2007–2014 (Contract with NASCAR)
The IRL on ESPN
* 1996–2009
The NHRA on ESPN
* 1980(?)–2000 (Contracts with individual races)
* 2001-2013 (Contract with NHRA)
Champ Car World Series on ESPN
* 2007-
The NHL on ESPN
* 1985–1988 (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
* NCAA Tournament: 1980–1990 (Contract with NCAA)
* ACC:
* Big 10: 1979-2017, ESPN-Plus
* Big 12: ESPN-Plus
* Big East: 1979-2013, ESPN-Plus
Music
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."[14]
ESPN in popular culture
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 the Brad Paisley music video "I'm Gonna Miss Her (The Fishing Song)",
Dan Patrick is seen broadcasting a fictional bass fishing tournament on
SportsCenter.
* 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 Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, ESPN's growth and addition
of new channels is parodied when 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). The joke behind this being that in the earlier days
ESPN 2 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. Also Dan Patrick, ESPN
personality, plays a cop who arrests Sandler's character.
* In the Farrelly Brothers comedy There's Something About Mary, the
character Mary—played by Cameron Diaz—invites her date inside, saying "You
want to watch SportsCenter?"
* In the DVD special features in the movie Anchorman: The Legend of Ron
Burgundy, 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.
* The short-lived 1998 TV series Sports Night (by West Wing creator Aaron
Sorkin) was based on an ESPN-style network, with the same witty banter
between anchors.
* 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".
* In Jerry Maguire, ESPN was present in the NFL Draft scene, and one of the
last scenes of the movie was an Up Close interview with Rod Tidwell, Cuba
Gooding Jr.'s character.
* ESPN is referenced in a Simpsons' episode: Homer flips through various
channels and stops on a channel which clearly lampoons ESPN, except the
network's initials are PENS (an anagram 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".
* In the movie Talladega Nights, staring Will Ferrell, the fictional
character Ricky Bobby is interviewed by an ESPN reporter.
* 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.
* In the movie The Sentinel, the main character wakes up and is working out
in front of a t.v., which Sportcenter is on.
* There are at least four children named after the network.[15]
ESPN business ventures
Current
* ESPN.com (1995–present)
* ESPNU.com (2005-present)
* EXPN.com (1998-present)
* ESPN The Magazine (1998–present)
* ESPN Deportes La Revista (2005–present)
* ESPN Original Entertainment (2001–present)
* ESPN Books (2004–present)
* ESPN Zone (1998–present)
* ESPY Awards (1993–present)
* ESPN Integration (2006–present)
* ESPN Online Games (2006–present)
* ESPN Broadband (2002–present)
* Partial interest in the Arena Football League (2006–present, in exchange
for television rights).
Former
* Mobile ESPN (2006)
The ESPN family of networks
Television
* ESPN (1979–present)
* ESPN on ABC (2006-present, replacing ABC Sports)
* ESPN International (1989–present)
* ESPN2 (1993–present)
* ESPNEWS (1996–present)
* ESPN Classic (1997–present)
* ESPNU (2005–present)
* ESPN Deportes (2004–present)
* ESPNHD (2003–present)
* ESPN2HD (2005–present)
* ESPN Plus (–present)
* ESPN PPV (–present)
Internet
* ESPN Motion (2003–present)
* ESPN 360 (2005–present)
* ESPN.com
Radio
* ESPN Radio (1992–present)
* ESPN Deportes Radio (2005–present)
References
1. ^ ESPN: An Uncensored History, by Michael Freeman. Published in 2000
2. ^ "ESPN decides not to match Comcast's offer", ESPN, August 18, 2005.
3. ^ "ESPN calls time out on scripted fare", Variety, vol. 407, No. 1, May
21-27, 2007, p. 22
4. ^ ESPN: Building an Empire, by Stuart Evey. Published in 2005. (Evey is a
former Getty executive.)
5. ^ The Walt Disney Company - George W. Bodenheimer Executive Biography.
The Walt Disney Company. Retrieved on 2007-04-07.
6. ^ SEAN R. H. BRATCHES Executive Vice President, Sales and Marketing.
media.espn.com. Retrieved on 2007-04-07.
7. ^ CHRISTINE F. DRIESSEN Executive Vice President and Chief Financial
Officer. media.espn.com. Retrieved on 2007-04-07.
8. ^ EDWIN M. DURSO Executive Vice President, Administration. media.espn.com.
Retrieved on 2007-04-07.
9. ^ CHUCK PAGANO Executive Vice President, Technology. media.espn.com.
Retrieved on 2007-04-07.
10. ^ JOHN SKIPPER Executive Vice President, Content. media.espn.com.
Retrieved on 2007-04-07.
11. ^ NORBY WILLIAMSON Executive Vice President, Studio and Remote
Production. media.espn.com. Retrieved on 2007-04-07.
12. ^ RUSSELL WOLFF Executive Vice President and Managing Director, ESPN
International. media.espn.com. Retrieved on 2007-04-07.
13. ^ Little League Chronology. Little League Online. Retrieved on
2007-04-07. ESPN2 broadcasts started in 1997.
14. ^ Roboff, Annie. Official Annie Roboff Home Page. Retrieved on
2007-06-19.
15. ^ "Texas toddler at least third named ESPN", ESPN, June 16, 2006.
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