.svg)
| Name | ESPN |
|---|---|
| Owner | ESPN Inc. |
| Sister names | ESPN2,ESPNU,others |
| Logofile | ESPN wordmark.svg |
| Logosize | 180px |
| Language | English |
| Launch | September 7, 1979 |
| Headquarters | Bristol, ConnecticutSan Francisco, California |
| Web | ESPN.com |
| Career | http://espncareers.com/ |
| Picture format | 480i (SDTV)720p (HDTV) |
| Slogan | The Worldwide Leader In Sports |
| Sat serv 1 | DirecTV |
| Sat chan 1 | 206 (SD/HD) 210 Alternate feed1206 VOD |
| Sat serv 2 | Dish Network |
| Sat chan 2 | 140 (SD/HD) 145 147 148 Alternate feeds |
| Cable serv 1 | Available on most cable systems |
| Cable chan 1 | Check local listings for channels |
| Adsl serv 1 | AT&T; U-Verse |
| Adsl chan 1 | 602 |
| Key people | George Bodenheimer, President |
| Founder | Scott Rasmussen and Bill Rasmussen |
ESPN (standing for the Entertainment Sports Programming Network, but now exclusively referred to by its acronym), is an American cable television network focusing on sports-related programmingincluding live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming.
Founded by Bill Rasmussen, his son Scott Rasmussen and Getty Oil Company executive Stuart Evey, it launched on September 7, 1979, under the direction of Chet Simmons, the network's President and CEO (and later the United States Football League's first commissioner). Getty Oil provided the funding to begin the new venture. Geoff Bray of New Britain, CT was chosen as the architect. George Bodenheimer is ESPN's current president, a position he has held since November 19, 1998. Since March 2003, Bodenheimer has also headed ABC Sports, which was operationally folded into ESPN in 2006.
ESPN's signature telecast, SportsCenter, debuted with the network and aired its 30,000th episode on February 11, 2007. ESPN broadcasts primarily from its studios in Bristol, Connecticut. The network also operates offices in Miami; New York City; Seattle, Washington; Charlotte, North Carolina; and Los Angeles. The Los Angeles office, from which the late-night edition of SportsCenter is now broadcast, opened at L.A. Live in early 2009.
ESPN started with the debut of Sportscenter hosted by Lee Leonard and George Grande. Afterwards was a pro slow pitch softball game. The first score on SportsCenter was from women's tennis on the final weekend of the US Open.
To help fill 24 hours a day of air time, ESPN showed a wide variety of sports events that broadcast networks did not show on weekends, including Australian rules football, the Canadian Football League, 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 at the time. ESPN also aired business shows and exercise videos.
ESPN recruited Steve Powell, former Director of Sports Programming at HBO, to be its first head of Programming. Powell had been the youngest VP at HBO and its parent company (Time, Inc.), but left to attend Harvard Business School. He worked for ESPN while completing the MBA Program at Harvard.
In 1983, The United States Football League (USFL) made its debut on ESPN and ABC. The league (which lasted for three seasons) enjoyed ephemeral success, some portion of which was a byproduct of the exposure afforded through ESPN coverage.
On July 15, 1985, ESPN started airing the "ESPN Sports Update" (later known as "28/58"), a condensed run-down of scores and news that aired at 28 and 58 minutes past the hour, when SportsCenter was not airing. This was changed to 18/58 on May 30, 2005.
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. ESPN Sunday Night Football would last for 19 years and spur ESPN's rise to legitimacy. In the 2006 NFL season, ESPN began airing Monday Night Football, formerly seen on its sister network ABC. (NBC took over the Sunday night game) Former Commissioner Paul Tagliabue credits ESPN for revolutionizing the NFL, "ESPN was able to take the draft, the pregame and highlight shows, and other NFL programming to a new level."
In 1984, ABC made a deal with Getty Oil to acquire ESPN. ABC retained an 80% share, and sold 20% to Nabisco. The Nabisco shares were later sold to Hearst Corporation, which still holds a 20% stake today. In 1986, ABC was purchased for $3.5 billion by Capital Cities Communications. In 1996, The Walt Disney Company purchased Capital Cities/ABC for $19 billion and picked up an 80% stake in ESPN at that time. According to an analysis published by Barron's Magazine in February 2008, ESPN "is probably worth more than 40% of Disney's entire value... based on prevailing cash-flow multiples in the industry."
In 1990, ESPN added Major League Baseball to its lineup with a $400 million contract. The contract has been renewed and will continue through 2011. Jon Miller and Joe Morgan were the longtime voices of the network's centerpiece Sunday Night Baseball through the 2010 season. Steve Phillips joined the package in 2009, but Phillips was later dismissed by the network in October 2009. In December 2010 ESPN announced that Orel Hersheiser, Dan Schulman, and Bobby Valentine will be the new announcers of "Sunday Night Baseball" beginning with the 2011 season.
ESPN broadcast each of the four major professional sports leagues in North America from 2002 until 2004, when it cut ties with the National Hockey League. The network had aired NHL games from 1980–82, from 1986–89, and most recently from 1992-2004. ESPN has been broadcasting Major League Soccer games about once a week on ESPN2 since that league's inception in 1996. In most years, the annual All-Star Game and MLS Cup championship game, and in some years, the Opening Night game, are shown on ABC broadcast stations.
With the increasing cost of live sports entertainment, such as the USD$8.8 billion costs for NFL football broadcasts rights for eight years, "scripted entertainment has become a luxury item for ESPN," said David Carter, director of the Sports Business Institute at the University of Southern California.
ESPN broadcasts 65 sports, 24 hours a day in 16 languages in more than 200 countries.
The 1990s and early 2000s saw a considerable growth within the company. ESPN Radio launched on New Years Day, 1992 and has seen tremendous success. ESPN2 was founded in 1993, launched by Keith Olbermann and Suzy Kolber with SportsNite. Three years later ESPNews was born, with Mike Tirico as the first anchor. In 1997, ESPN acquired the Classic Sports Network and renamed it ESPN Classic. ESPNU, a network focusing exclusively on collegiate sports, launched on March 4, 2005.
In 1994, ESPN launched The ESPN Sports Poll, created by Dr. Richard Luker. The Sports Poll was the first ongoing national daily study of sports fan activities and interests in the United States. Sporting News acknowledged the accomplishments of The ESPN Sports Poll and Dr. Luker in 1996.
After Disney's acquisition of ESPN, ABC Sports began to increasingly integrate its operations with the network in 1996. That year Steve Bornstein, president of ESPN since 1990, was made president of ABC Sports as well. This integration culminated in the 2006 decision to merge ABC Sports' operations with ESPN, which transitioned all ABC Sports telecasts to ESPN-styled productions and branding under the banner ESPN on ABC. However, due to the nature of ESPN still being a joint venture of ESPN and Hearst, ESPN on ABC is still legally separate from ESPN since the ABC network has no ownership interest by Hearst.
In 1998, ESPN also began utilizing a "Skycam" during their NHL broadcasts, later expanding to baseball, basketball, and football games.
In October 2009, ESPN marked its 30th anniversary with the premiere of 30 for 30, a series of documentaries focusing on major sports stories and events that occurred over the 30 years that the network had been on the air. While premiering to low ratings, awareness and critical reception of the series increased in later installments, leading to an increase in viewership. By the seventh episode, The U, the audience had grown to a 1.8 rating and well over 2 million viewers.
In 2004, ESPN entered the European market by launching a version of ESPN Classic, and then by acquiring the North American Sports Network (which was re-launched as ESPN America in February 2009). In August 2009, ESPN also launched a domestic channel for the United Kingdom and Ireland after acquiring domestic rights to 46 Barclays Premier League matches for the forthcoming season, and 23 matches each for the following three seasons. The deal replaced a previous contract with Setanta Sports GB, who was experiencing financial difficulties and bankruptcy.
Despite its acclaim and notability, ESPN and its sister networks have been the targets of criticism for some of its programming
ESPN and all of ABC and Disney's cable networks use the 720p HD line standard because ABC executives proposed a progressive scan signal that resolves fluid and high speed motion in sports better, particularly during slow motion replays.
In 2011, ESPNHD began to downplay its distinct logo in promotion in preparation for a shift of its standard definition feed to letterboxed widescreen, which occured on June 1, 2011.
Originally, ESPN 3D only aired simulcasts of 3D events from other ESPN channels, but on February 14, 2011, the network switched to a 24 hour format with repeat airings of past 3D events.
Alongside its live sports broadcasts, ESPN also airs a variety of sports highlight, talk, and documentary styled shows. These include:
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." One of several Saturday Night Live sketches poking fun at the network features ESPN2 airing a show called Scottish Soccer Hooligan Weekly, which includes a fake advertisement for "Senior Women's Beach Lacrosse." SNL also parodies ESPN Classic with fake archived obscure women's sportscasts from the 1980s such as bowling, weight lifting and curling, with announcers who know nothing about the sport, and instead focus on the sponsors which are always women's hygiene products. In the early years of ESPN, Late Night with David Letterman even featured a "Top Ten List" poking fun at some of the obscure sports seen on ESPN at the time. One of the more memorable sports on the list was "Amish Rake Fighting."
A common joke in comedic television and film involves people getting ESP (an abbreviation for Extrasensory Perception, and an irony considering ESPN was initially supposed to be named "ESP") confused with ESPN, often including someone saying something along the lines of "I know these kind of things, I've got ESPN". Electronic Arts in the early 1990s used to have a faux sports network logo on their sports games called EASN (Electronic Arts Sports Network), but soon changed to EA Sports after ESPN requested that they stop using it. There are at least 22 children named after the network.
Category:Bristol, Connecticut Category:ESPN media outlets Category:Orphan initialisms Category:Television channels and stations established in 1979 Category:Sports television networks in the United States
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
