ESPN

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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

ESPN (which formerly stood for the 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 Austin Stark, 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 commisioner). 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. 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.

Contents 1 History 1.1 Early years 1.2 Professional Sports Arrive 1.3 Expansion 2 Ownership history 3 High definition telecasts 4 Executives 5 ESPN Significant programming rights 6 Criticisms 7 Music 8 ESPN in popular culture 8.1 ESPN business ventures 8.2 Current 8.3 Former 9 The ESPN family of networks 9.1 Television 9.2 Internet 9.3 Radio 10 References 11 See also 12 External links

[edit] History

[edit] Early years

The roots of ESPN can be traced to Bill Rasmussen, a television sports reporter for NBC affiliate Channel 22 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 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. Even Cockfights were put on the show to fill the time. 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.

[edit] 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. Today, ESPN's NFL games are on Monday nights, with NBC showing the Sunday night games.

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 Leagues in North America until deciding not to renew the deal with the NHL after the lockout, citing ratings for original programming was comparable to those of NHL broadcasts.^[2]

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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.^[3]

[edit] High definition telecasts

In 2004, ESPN opened its High Definition center in Bristol, Connecticut. Many shows, including Sportscenter, Baseball Tonight, NFL Live 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 11pm ET edition of SportsCenter with Linda Cohn and Rece Davis on June 7, 2004.

[edit] Executives

^{[citation needed]}

• George Bodenheimer: President, ESPN, Inc.
• Sean Bratches: Executive Vice President, Sales and Marketing
• Christine Driessen: Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
• Edwin Durso: Executive Vice President, Administration
• Chuck Pagano: Executive Vice President, Technology
• John Skipper: Executive Vice President, Content
• Norby Williamson: Executive Vice President, Studio and Remote Production
• Russell Wolff: Executive Vice President and Managing Director, ESPN International

[edit] ESPN Significant programming rights

The NFL on ESPN [1]

• 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 [2]

• 1990–2013

ESPN2 Major League Soccer (soon to be renamed ESPN Major League Soccer)

• 1996–2014

The NBA on ESPN

• 1982–1984
• 2002–2008

The Arena Football League on ESPN

• 1989–2002
• 2007–2011

Little League World Series

• 1963^{[citation needed]}-2014

WNBA on ESPN(Originally the WNBA on ESPN2)

• 1997-2008

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

• 2001-2013

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 [3]

• 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

[edit] Criticisms

ESPN has been criticized for having an East Coast bias, in that they devote a disproportionate amount of time to sports teams in the Northeastern United States. The all-sports network also devotes much of its airtime to perceived "fan" favorites, such as the Dallas Cowboys, Notre Dame Fighting Irish,New York Yankees, and Duke Blue Devils, historically bandwagoning popular teams with biased commentary . ESPN has also been criticized for making sports that they could spread more awareness of, like soccer, hockey, wrestling, and bowling, into laughingstocks by its hosts and journalists.^{[citation needed]} Some would argue, however, that this is purely reflective of the typical American sportsfan's tastes, and does not indicate a widespread negative bias in ESPN's coverage. ESPN is also known to provide more prominent coverage to sports in which it owns a vested stake (such as the Women's College Basketball and the Arena Football League), while reducing or eliminating coverage when the opposite is true (such as the NHL, after ESPN gave up the broadcast rights to Versus in 2005).

[edit] Music

ESPN has had its own theme music for quite a few years, but early on it used source music.^{[citation needed]} 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.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] 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 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 2004 movie Fever Pitch, Ben Wrightmen is interviewed by Steve Levy at Boston Red Sox Spring Training.

• 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).

• In the movie The Waterboy, main character Bobby Boucher is featured on SportsCenter, and some of the SCLSU games are aired by ESPN.

• In the movie Total Recall, Arnold Schwarzenegger flips the channels on a futuristic TV, eventually stopping on ESPN. Since the movie takes place in the future the implication is that the network will be around for a long time.

• 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 Sandlers 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.

• In one episode of King of the Hill, Hank mentions that the Gay Rodeo is a sport that he has seen on ESPN 3.

• In one episode of The King of Queens, Doug asks Carrie after an embarrassing dancing moment, "You want to watch SportsCenter?".

• 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.

• 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).

• 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.

• 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.

• 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".

• In The Sentinel, Michael Douglas' character Pete Garrison is seen watching SportsCenter as he is doing his early morning workout before reporting in to his job.

• In one episode of Friends, Rachel Green, played by Jennifer Aniston, talks to Chandler Bing, played by Matthew Perry, about how he might improve his masculinity if he spent some time watching ESPN. (While growing up in Canada, Matthew Perry was a real-life top-ranked junior tennis player.)

• In the movie Talladega Nights, staring Will Farrell, 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.

• In the movie Baseketball ESPN personalities Dan Patrick and Kenny Mayne discuss the Denslow Cup championship on Sportscenter.

• There are at least four children named after the network.^[4]

[edit] ESPN business ventures

[edit] 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).
• Jayski's Silly Season Site (2007–present)

[edit] Former

• Mobile ESPN (2006)

[edit] The ESPN family of networks

[edit] 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)

[edit] Internet

• ESPN Motion (2003–present)
• ESPN 360 (2005–present)

[edit] Radio

• ESPN Radio (1992–present)
• ESPN Deportes Radio (2005–present)

[edit] References

• ESPN Mediakit (2006). [4] Retrieved Feb. 13, 2006.

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: Building an Empire, by Stuart Evey. Published in 2005. (Evey is a former Getty executive.)
4. ^ "Texas toddler at least third named ESPN", ESPN, June 16, 2006.

[edit] See also

• List of programs broadcast by ESPN
• List of ESPN personalities
• Annual sporting events broadcast on ESPN
• ESPN Full Circle
• SportsCenter
• ESPN Major League Baseball
• ESPN2 Major League Soccer
• NASCAR on ESPN
• WNBA on ESPN
• The NBA on ESPN
• ESPN auto racing broadcast teams
• ESPN College Basketball Broadcast Teams
• ESPN College Football Broadcast Teams
• ESPN MLB Broadcast Teams
• ESPN NBA Broadcast Teams
• ESPN NFL Broadcast Teams
• ESPN MLS/Soccer Broadcast Teams (FIFA World Cup Included)
• ESPN2 WNBA Broadcast Teams
• List of assets owned by Disney
• TSN
• Dish Network Channel Grid
• List of DirecTV channels

[edit] External links

• Official Site
• ESPN HD
• ESPN TV
• ESPN International
• ESPN Argentina
• ESPN Brasil
• ESPN/Star Sports(Asia)
• ESPN Forums
• ESPN Fan Zone (Official ESPN Research via Surveys and Forums)
• The King of all Sports Media – ESPN Sports Business NewsDecember 20, 2006
• Geoff Reiss Sr. VP ESPN Original Entertainment speaks to Bruce Keffer of Latin NewsWire about the Tribeca/ESPN Sport Film Festival Debut Jan 04, 2007

ESPN Inc.
ESPN Executives: George Bodenheimer (President, ESPN Inc.) | Sean Bratches | Christine Driessen | Edwin Durso | Chuck Pagano | John Skipper | Norby Williamson | Russell Wolff
ESPN Family of Networks: ESPN | ESPN2 | ESPN on ABC | ESPNEWS | ESPN Classic | ESPNU | ESPN Deportes | ESPNHD | ESPN2HD | ESPN Now | ESPN Plus | ESPN PPV | ESPN360 | ESPN Radio | ESPN Deportes Radio
ESPN Business Ventures: ESPN.com | ESPN Original Entertainment | ESPN The Magazine | ESPN Deportes La Revista | ESPN Books | ESPN Zone | ESPY Awards | ESPN Integration | Jayski's Silly Season Site
Sports Properties: Arena Football League | College Football | Major League Baseball | Major League Soccer | National Football League | NASCAR | National Basketball Association | Women's National Basketball Association | List of Programming Rights
Key Programs: Around the Horn | Baseball Tonight | Cold Pizza | College GameDay (football) | ESPN College Football Primetime | Friday Night Fights | Jim Rome Is Burning | Mike and Mike in the Morning | Monday Night Countdown | Monday Night Football | NBA Friday | NASCAR Countdown | NBA Shootaround | Outside the Lines |Pardon the Interruption | Saturday Primetime | College GameDay (basketball) | SportsCenter | Sunday NFL Countdown | Sunday Night Baseball -List of programs broadcast by ESPN
Notable Personalities: John Anderson | Chris Berman | Bonnie Bernstein | Mike Breen | Hubie Brown | Linda Cohn | Chris Connelly | Lee Corso | Jay Crawford | Rece Davis | Chris Fowler | Ron Franklin | Peter Gammons | Mike Greenberg | Mike Golic | Jay Harris | Kirk Herbstreit | Fred Hickman | Tom Jackson | Dana Jacobson | Brian Kenny | Suzy Kolber | Tony Kornheiser | Bob Ley | Steve Levy | Kenny Mayne | Sean McDonough | Jon Miller | Joe Morgan | Brent Musburger | Brad Nessler | Dan Patrick | Mike Patrick | Karl Ravech | Tony Reali | Jim Rome | John Saunders | Stuart Scott | Howie Schwab | Dan Shulman | Michele Tafoya | Joe Theisman | Mike Tirico | Dick Vitale | Michael Wilbon -List of ESPN personalities