ESPN
ESPN 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. 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.
Encyclopedia
ESPN 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. 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 is a sport [i]s news television [i] show shown every day on ESPN [i] since the network ...
, debuted with the network and aired its 25,000th episode on August 25 2002. 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. ESPN is available in over 90 million homes in the United States and over 147 countries and territories via ESPN International. The name of the sport company was lengthened to "ESPN Inc." in February 1985.
History
ESPN started as an alternative to standard television news broadcasts and the information found in "Sports" sections of newspapers. It began as a fairly small operation and often had to broadcast unorthodox sporting events, such as the
World's Strongest Man Competition; international sports relatively unknown in the U.S., such as
Australian rules football, as well as the short-lived
United States Football League , to attract viewers. In 1987, ESPN landed a contract to show
National Football League games on Sunday evenings, an event which marked as a turning point in its development from a smaller cable TV network to a marketing empire, a cornerstone to the enthusiastic "sports culture" it largely helped to create.
ESPN was originally owned by a joint venture between Getty Oil Company and
Nabisco. Since 1984, the entire family of ESPN networks and franchises have been owned by ABC and the Hearst Corporation .
In 2004, ESPN opened its
High Definition center in Bristol, Connecticut. Many shows, including
Sportscenter is a sport [i]s news television [i] show shown every day on ESPN [i] since the network ...
,
Baseball Tonight is a Sports Emmy Awards [i] winning program that airs on ESPN [i], and is the only ...
,
NFL Live is a National Football League [i] highlight and analysis show that airs Monday through Frid...
,
College Gameday is an ESPN [i] show that first aired in 1987 with Bob Carpenter [i] as host and Lee Corso [i] ...
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 is a sport [i]s news television [i] show shown every day on ESPN [i] since the network ...
with
Linda Cohn and
Rece Davis on June 7, 2004.
Significant programming rights
The NFL on ESPN- 1987–1989
- 1990–1997
- 1998–2005
- 2006–2013
ESPN Major League BaseballESPN Major League SoccerThe NBA on ESPNThe WNBA on ESPN2
ESPN Golf NASCAR on ESPN The NHL on ESPN ESPN College FootballESPN College Basketball
FIFAMusic
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.
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. Oftentimes this comes in the form of a lampoon of the number of channels ESPN operates. A few examples:
- In the movie Zathura is an illustrated book by Chris Van Allsburg [i] as well as a film based on the book. ...
, 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.
[i]
...
, Ben Wrightmen is interviewed by Steve Levy at Boston Red Sox Spring Training.
- In the movie , a major dodgeball tournament is broadcast by ESPN 8 : "If it's almost a sport, we've got it!" .
- 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 DVD special features in the movie , there is a skit that contains the "interview" of fictional anchorman Ron Burgundy to work at ESPN in 1979; he stated 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 is a satirical American [i] animated television series [i] created by ...
, Hank mentions that the Gay Rodeo is a sport that he has seen on ESPN 3.
- The short-lived, 1998 TV series Sports Night was an American [i] television [i] series about a fictional sport [i]s ne ...
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 .
- In the film Mean Girls, a dumb blonde claims to have ESPN, when she intended to say ESP.
...
".
- There are at least three children named after the network.
ESPN business ventures
ESPN maintains the
ESPN forums, message boards which can be located on www.espn.com. It consists of various sports such as
baseball,
basketball,
football,
NCAA sports, etc. It also is popular for its fantasy sports forums, which allows people to converse about trade ideas and get feedback on whether or not they should pull the trigger on certain trades in their fantasy leagues. It has individual forums for each team but also contains general forums where fans of all teams can gather and speak with each other. Other ESPN ventures include:
The ESPN family of networks
Television
Internet
Radio
Reference
- ESPN Mediakit . Retrieved Feb. 13, 2006.
ESPN Classic Canada
See also
- List of programs broadcast by ESPN
- List of ESPN personalities
- Annual sporting events broadcast on ESPN
- ESPN Full Circle
- ESPN Major League Baseball is a promotion of Major League Baseball [i] on ESPN [i] and ESPN2 [i], wi ...
- The WNBA on ESPN2
- The NBA on ESPN is the de facto [i] name for a twice weekly presentation of National Basketball Association [i] ...
- 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
- ESPN WNBA Broadcast Teams
- List of assets owned by Disney
- TSN
- Dish Network Channel Grid
- List of DirecTV channels
External links
