'ESPN/ESPN-DT', formerly an acronym for 'Entertainment and Sports Programming Network', is an AmerInsert non-formatted text here-- cable televisionnetwork 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 later became the United States Football League's first commissioner). George Bodenheimer is ESPN's current president, a position he has held since November 19, 1998; he is also the current head of ESPN on ABC, having been named to that position on March 3, 2003, when its was still called 'ABC Sports'. ESPN's 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.
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]
ESPN logo 1979-early 1985,usually red
Executives from Getty Oil 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, 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 season 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 2004-2005 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 was 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.
★ NCAA Division I FCS (formerly Division I-AA), Division II, and Division III playoffs (selected games) and championship games. ESPN College Basketball
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 an episode of the CBSsitcomYes Dear, Christine and Jimmy are in the kitchen, when Jimmy gets in the mood to have sex; Christine says, "Isn't ''SportsCenter'' on?" to which Jimmy replies, "You can't fool me!" Then he looks at his watch, realizes ''SportsCenter'' is indeed on - and leaves the kitchen to go watch it.
★ 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 '', 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, with popular ESPN personality Chris Berman calling the play-by-play. Also Dan Patrick, another (now former) ESPN personality, plays a cop who arrests Sandler's character, Paul Crewe.
★ In the DVD special features in the movie '', 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".
★ ESPN is referenced in one "The 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 "sumorodeo", while George Carlin stated that ESPN showed "Australian dickwrestling". 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. They also cover the fictional 'Bourbon Bowl' at the end of the movie. Lynn Swann is broadcaster on the field for ESPN.
★ In the movie The Sentinel, the main character wakes up and is working out in front of a TV, which Sportcenter is on.
★ There are at least four children named after the network.[15]
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