ESPN

ESPN broadcasts primarily from studios located in Bristol, Connecticut. The chain also operates offices in Miami, New York (state), Seattle, Charlotte, North Carolina and Los Angeles. James Pitaro currently serves as President of ESPN, a position he has held since March 5, 2018, following the resignation of John Skipper on December 18, 2017. While ESPN is one of the most successful sports networks, there has been a lot of criticism of ESPN. This includes allegations of biased coverage, A and controversies with individual broadcasters and analysts.

As of September 2018, ESPN is available to approximately 86 million television households (93.2% of pay television households) in the United States.

In addition to the flagship channel and its seven related channels in the United States, ESPN broadcasts in more than 200 countries. Operates regional channels in, and the. In, it owns a 20% stake in (TSN) and its five sister networks.

In 2011, the history and rise of ESPN was chronicled in "Those Guys Have All the Fun." It is a nonfiction book written by James Andrew Miller and Tom Shales and published by.

History
Bill Rasmussen conceived of the ESPN concept in late May 1978, after being fired from his job with the of the. One of the first steps in the process for Bill and his son Scott (who had also been laid off by the Whalers) was finding land to build the channel's broadcast facility. The Rasmussens first rented offices in Plainville, Connecticut. However, the plan to create ESPN there was put on hold due to a local ordinance that prohibits buildings from having on the roof. Available land was quickly found in Bristol, Connecticut (where the canal remains headquartered to this day), with funds to purchase the property provided by Getty Oil, which purchased 85% of the company to Bill Rasmussen on February 22, 1979, in an attempt to diversify the  of the company. This helped the fledgling company's credibility, however there were still many questions about the viability of its sports channel concept. Another event that helped build ESPN's credibility was securing an advertising deal with Anheuser-Busch in the spring of 1979; the company spent $1,000,000 to be the "exclusive beer advertised on the network."

ESPN began broadcasting on September 7, 1979, beginning with the first broadcast of what would become the network's flagship show, . Recorded in front of a small live audience inside the Bristol studios, it was broadcast to 1.4 million cable subscribers across the United States.

ESPN's next big break came when the network acquired the rights to broadcast coverage of the early rounds of the. The NCAA tournament was first broadcast in March 1980, creating the modern television event known as "March Madness." The network's tournament coverage also launched the sportscaster career of, who at the time he joined ESPN, had just been fired as of the.

In April of that year, ESPN created another made-for-television show when it began televising the NFL Draft. It provided comprehensive coverage of the event that allowed rookie players from the college ranks to start their professional careers in front of a national television audience in a way they couldn't before.

The next big thing for ESPN came within a couple of months in 1984. During this period, the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) bought 100% of ESPN from Rasmussens and Getty Oil. Under Getty ownership, the channel was unable to compete for television rights to major sporting event contracts, as its corporate parent would not provide the funding, leading to ESPN losing broadcast deals with the (to USA Network) and Division I college football of the NCAA (to ). For years, the, the , and the refused to consider cable as a means of transmitting some of its games. However, with the backing of ABC, ESPN's ability to compete for major sports contracts was greatly increased and gave it credibility in the sports broadcasting industry.

Later, in 1984, the ruled that the  could no longer monopolize rights to negotiate contracts for college football games, which it allowed each individual school to negotiate broadcast deals of their choice. ESPN took full advantage and began airing a slew of NCAA football games, creating an opportunity for fans to watch multiple games each weekend (instead of just one), the same deal the NCAA had negotiated. previously with TBS. ESPN's defining moment occurred in 1987, when it landed a contract with the NFL to broadcast eight games during that year's regular season, all of which aired on Sundays on the night, marking the first telecasts of NFL primetime games. ESPN's Sunday Night Football games would become the highest-rated NFL telecasts for the next 17 years (before losing the rights to NBC in 2006). The channel's decision to broadcast the games of the NFL on Sunday nights actually resulted in a decline in viewership for daytime games being shown on the major broadcast networks, marking the first time ESPN had been a legitimate competitor to NBC and CBS, which had long dominated the sports television market.

In 1992, ESPN launched, a national sports talk radio network offering analysis and commentary programs (including such shows as Mike, Mike in the Morning, and The Herd), as well as in-game audio of sporting events (including some simulated with ESPN TV channel)

United States
The ESPN television network has been broadcasting in the United States since 1979. It is one of the channels with the highest audience in the country, often exceeding 10 million viewers. Throughout Over the years, ESPN has been adding other signals for the United States besides the main one: ESPN2 in 1993, in 1996 (news), ESPN Classic in 1998 (documentaries and classic events),  in 2004 (in Spanish), and ESPNU in 2005 (collegiate sport).

Main channel ESPN began to be distributed in high definition in 2001, ESPN2 in 2005, ESPNU and ESPNews in 2008, and ESPN Deportes in 2011. ESPN 3D was created in June 2010 to broadcast the in three dimensions. In February 2011, it began broadcasting 24 hours a day, but stopped broadcasting in September 2013.

Sporting events
ESPN has broadcast the since 1987, previously on Sunday nights (Sunday Night Football) and since 2006 on Monday nights (Monday Night Football). It has also broadcast since 1979, most notably the, , ,  and the  since the 2010 season, and the  since 1991. On the other hand, it broadcast the from 1989 to 2002, in 2007 and 2008, and from 2014 onwards.

Regarding basketball, ESPN broadcast games in the 1982/83 and 1983/84 seasons, and then from 2002/03. It generally broadcasts on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays, and one of the series of conference finals. It has also broadcast games since its debut in 1997.

Meanwhile, ESPN has broadcast college basketball games from the major conferences since 1979, specifically the Big 12 and ACC conferences on Mondays and Wednesdays, the Big Ten and SEC on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and different conferences on Saturdays. Since 1986 it broadcasts the final week of the conference championships.

ESPN has broadcast games since 1990, including Wednesday and Sunday nights (since 1990), Monday nights (since 2002), Tuesday and Friday nights (1990 to 1993), Thursday nights (2003 to 2006), and postseason games (1996 to 2006).

The has had games on ESPN in various periods from 1979 to 2004, and then starting in 2021. The has been on ESPN since 1996. The network also broadcast the from 1995 to 2009, the  and the English. It also showed FIFA World Cup matches in 1982, 1986, and between 1994 and 2014.

Numerous tennis tournaments have been broadcast on ESPN: the since 1984; the  from 1986 to 1993, and then from 2003 to 2015; the  since 2003, the  since 2009; the  tournaments since 2003; the  and WTA Premier of Indian Wells, Miami and Cincinnati since 2011; the  from 2002 to 2005 and then from 2011; and the  from 1979 to 2008.

For golf, ESPN has broadcast the since 2008. Previously, it broadcast the from 1982 to 2014; the  from 2010 to 2015; the  from 1982 to 1990; the Women's and Veterans US Opens from 1995 to 2014; the Women's and Veterans British Opens from 2010 to 2015; and other tournaments on the  from 1980 to 2006, the  from 1979 to 2009, and the  from 2002 to 2010.

ESPN has broadcast multiple motorsport championships throughout its history. It broadcasted NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races from 1981 to 2000, and then from 2007 to 2014; the NASCAR Nationwide Series between 2007 and 2014; and the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series from 1995 to 2002. It also broadcast the CART races from 1980 to 2001, the IndyCar Series from 1996 to 2008, the National Hot Rod Association from the chain's inception through 2015, and the Global Rallycross Championship from 2011 through 2013.

Programming
Alongside its live sports broadcasts, ESPN also airs a variety of sports highlights, talk and documentary-style shows. These include:


 * Around the Horn - Competitive debate between four sports writers from around the country
 * Baseball Tonight - a daily round-up of Major League Baseball day-to-day stories and games airing throughout the baseball season
 * College GameDay (basketball) - weekly college basketball show that airs from the week's primetime Saturday game
 * College GameDay (football) - Weekly preview of college football watch the broadcast from the site of a great college football game
 * E:60 - An investigative news program focused on American and international sports
 * First Take - Monday-Friday with Stephen A. Smith, Max Kellerman and Molly Qerim (moved from ESPN2 on January 3, 2017)
 * '' - A simulcast of the ESPN Radio morning show, focusing on current sports stories
 * 'Monday Night Countdown' - weekly recap show aired on Monday nights during the NFL season, also serves as the pre-game for Monday night football
 * Outside the Lines - The talk and debate show that examines critical sports issues on and off the field of play
 * Pardon the Interruption - Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon debate a number of sports topics
 * ' - ESPN's flagship show, a daily sports news show that delivers the latest sports news and highlights
 * SportsNation - Poll-based show based on audience participation, including material generated or suggested by viewers
 * Sunday NFL Countdown- Weekly preview that airs on Sunday mornings during the NFL season
 * ESPN FC - Soccer in analysis by the experts of the beautiful game is on ESPN FC.

Many of ESPN's documentary programs (such as and ) are produced by, a film division created in March 2008 as a restructuring of ESPN Original Entertainment, a programming division that was originally formed in 2001. 30 for 30 started airing in 2009 and continues airing to this day. Each episode is through the eyes of a well known filmmaker and has featured some of the biggest directors in Hollywood.

The 30 for 30 film won the  in, the first such Oscar for ESPN.

signed a 5-year contract with ESPN starting 2019 on ESPN and ESPN+ which estimate every quarter 2 event on UFC on ESPN and 6 events on UFC Fight Night on ESPN+.

In March 2019, ESPN announced a new betting-themed daily program, Daily Wager, hosted by the network's gambling analyst Doug Kezirian. The program was ESPN's first regularly scheduled program solely dedicated to gaming-related content. On May 14, 2019, ESPN announced a deal with casino operator to establish an ESPN-branded studio at The  in Las Vegas to produce betting-themed content.

In search of a new strategic direction that will reduce the impact of covid on business in 2021 The Walt Disney CEO Bob Chapek during Q4 FY21 Earnings Conference with investor told that the company ready to expand gambling meaning ESPN department: "We're also moving towards a greater presence in online sports betting, and given our reaching scale, we have the potential to partner with third-parties in this space in a very meaningful way".

Executives

 * – President of ESPN, Co-chair, Disney Media Networks
 * Sean Bratches – Executive Vice President, Sales and Marketing
 * Christine Driessen – Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
 * Ed Durso – Executive Vice President, Administration
 * – Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer
 * – Executive Vice President, Programming
 * Russell Wolff – Executive Vice President and Managing Director, ESPN+

ESPN on ABC
Since September 2006, ESPN has been integrated with the sports division of sister broadcast network ABC, with sports events televised on that network airing under the banner ; much of ABC's sports coverage since the rebranding has become increasingly limited to secondary coverage of sporting events whose broadcast rights are held by ESPN (such as games,  games, and the  and its related qualifying events) as well as a limited array of event coverage not broadcast on ESPN (most notably, the ).

ESPN2
ESPN2 was launched on October 1, 1993. It carried a broad mix of event coverage from conventional sports—including auto racing, and  hockey—to —such as,. The "", a displaying sports news and scores during all programming that is now used by all of ESPN's networks, originated on ESPN2 in 1995. In the late 1990s, ESPN2 was gradually reformatted to serve as a secondary outlet for ESPN's mainstream sports programming.

ESPN Classic
ESPN Classic is a subscription television network that launched in 1995 as Classic Sports Network, founded by and Steve Greenberg. ESPN Inc. purchased Classic Sports Network in 1997 for $175 million, rebranding the channel to its current name the following year. The channel broadcasts notable archived sporting events (originally including events from past decades, but now focusing mainly on events from the 1990s and later), sports documentaries and sports-themed movies.

ESPNews
ESPNews is a subscription television network that was launched on November 1, 1996, originally focusing solely on sports news, highlights and s. Since August 2010, the network has gradually incorporated encores of ESPN's various sports debate and entertainment shows and video s of shows, in addition to sports news programming (which since the 2013 cancellation of Highlight Express, consists mainly of additional runs of SportsCenter); ESPNews also serves as an overflow feed due to programming conflicts caused by sporting events on the other ESPN networks.

ESPN Deportes
ESPN Deportes ( is a subscription television network that was originally launched in July 2001 to provide Spanish simulcasts of certain Major League Baseball telecasts from ESPN. It became a 24-hour sports channel in January 2004.

ESPNU
ESPNU is a subscription television network that launched on March 4, 2005, and focuses on college athletics including, , , college swimming, and.

Longhorn Network
The Longhorn Network is a subscription television network that was launched on August 26, 2011, focusing on events from the varsity sports teams of the. It features events from the 20 sports sanctioned by the Texas Longhorns athletics department, along with original programming (including historical, academic and cultural content).

SEC Network
SEC Network is a subscription television network that launched on August 14, 2014, focusing on the coverage of sporting events sanctioned by the. Created as a result of a 20-year broadcast partnership between the two entities, the network is a between the conference and ESPN Inc. (which operates the network).

ACC Network
Launching on August 22, 2019, the  is a subscription television network which focuses on the sporting events of the as part of a current agreement extending to the 2036–37 academic term as a joint venture of network operator ESPN Inc. and the ACC.

ESPNHD
ESPN launched its  feed, originally branded as ESPNHD, on March 30, 2003. All studio shows based in Bristol and at L. A. Live, along with most live event telecasts on ESPN, are broadcast in high definition. ESPN is one of the few television networks with an all-digital infrastructure. Archived non-HD programming is presented in  with. Pardon the Interruption and Around the Horn began airing in HD on September 27, 2010, with the relocation of the production of both shows into the facility housing the Washington, D.C. bureau for.

ESPN, as with Disney/ABC's other television networks, broadcasts HD programming in the resolution format; this is due to the fact that ABC executives had proposed a  signal that resolves fluid and high-speed motion in sports better, particularly during slow-motion replays. The network's Digital Center itself natively holds  operations and equipment. In 2011, ESPNHD began to downplay its distinct promotional logo in preparation for the conversion of its standard definition feed from a full-screen to a letterboxed format (via the application of the  #10 display flag), which occurred on June 1 of that year.

WatchESPN was a website for s, as well as an for  and  that allows subscribers of participating pay-TV providers to watch live streams of programming from ESPN and its sister networks (with the exception of ESPN Classic), including most sporting events, on computers, mobile devices,,  and  via their  login provided by their cable provider. The service originally launched on October 25, 2010, as ESPN Networks, a streaming service which provided a live stream of ESPN exclusive to subscribers. , an online streaming service providing live streams and replays of global sports events that launched in 2005 as a separate website, was incorporated into the WatchESPN platform on August 31, 2011. Likewise, was launched in April 2018 as an add-on subscription for $4.99 per month. On June 1, 2019, WatchESPN was discontinued with the service's full merger into the ESPN app.

ESPN Regional Television (formerly branded as ESPN Plus) is the network's arm, which produces collegiate sporting events for free-to-air television stations throughout the United States (primarily those affiliated with networks such as  and  or ). ESPN Plus syndicates and  games from the, ,  , ,  and the.

ESPN on
ESPN distributes various content on Snapchat Discover, including a Snapchat-only version of.

ESPN MVP (initially known as Mobile ESPN) was a 2005 attempt at having ESPN operate a with exclusive mobile content, first as a feature phone, then after ESPN MVP's termination into a  paid service. Technologies developed for it have since been transferred to the network's successful mobile strategy in the era.

International channels
ESPN owns and operates regional channels in, , , , and. In Canada, ESPN is a minority owner of (TSN) and the French-language  (RDS). ESPN also has a minority stake in in. In the, BT Group operates the channel BT Sport ESPN.

In popular culture
ESPN has been a part of since its inception. Many movies with a general sports theme will include ESPN announcers and programming into their storylines.

Many jokes have been made by comedians about fake obscure sports that are shown on ESPN. mentioned watching "sumo rodeo," while stated that ESPN showed "Australian  ." One of several sketches poking fun at the network features a fictional ESPN2 program called Scottish Soccer Hooligan Weekly, which includes a fake advertisement for "Senior Women's Beach Lacrosse."

An occasional joke used in comedic television and film involves people getting ESP (the common abbreviation for, that was coincidentally the abbreviation for the channel prior to its launch) confused with ESPN, often including someone saying a sentence along the lines of "I know these kinds of things, I've got ESPN." There are also at least 22 children that are named after the network.

Criticism
ESPN has been criticized for focusing too much on men's college and professional sports, and very little on women's sports or extreme sports. ,, and fans have also criticized ESPN for not giving their respective sports more coverage. Other criticism has focused on ethnicity in ESPN's varying mediated forms, as well as carriage fees and issues regarding the exportation of ESPN content. Some critics argue that ESPN's success is their ability to provide other enterprise and investigative sports news while competing with other hard sports-news-producing outlets such as and. Some scholars have challenged ESPN's journalistic integrity calling for an expanded standard of professionalism to prevent biased coverage and conflicts of interest.

On October 8, 2019, '' reported that an internal memo was sent to ESPN employees instructing them to avoid any political discussions regarding China and Hong Kong in the aftermath of a tweet by Rockets general manager Daryl Morey.

Awards
National Hispanic Media Coalition's "Outstanding Commitment and Outreach to the Latino Community", 2016.

Radios

 * (United States)
 * (Mexico)

Competitors

 * Fox Sports 1
 * NBCSN