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|publisher=USA Today
|publisher=USA Today
|quote=ESPN says it's heard of at least 22 babies named ESPN}}</ref>
|quote=ESPN says it's heard of at least 22 babies named ESPN}}</ref>

Many [[Star Wars]] enthusiasts claim the mask worn by the character [[Boba Fett]] is a homage to the "N" in the ESPN logo. [[George Lucas]] neither confirmed or denied the claim.


==ESPN business ventures==
==ESPN business ventures==

Revision as of 21:15, 17 February 2011

For the British/Mexican ESPN-owned channel of the same name, see ESPN (USA). For the railroad, see East Penn Railroad.
ESPN
HeadquartersBristol, Connecticut
Programming
Language(s)English
Ownership
OwnerESPN Inc.
(The Walt Disney Company-80%; Hearst Corporation-20%)
Key peopleGeorge Bodenheimer, President
History
FounderScott Rasmussen and Bill Rasmussen

The Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, almost always referred to by its initialism ESPN, is an American cable television network dedicated to broadcasting and producing sports-related programming 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

Founded by Bill Rasmussen[1] his son Scott Rasmussen and Getty Oil 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 Company 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. Bodenheimer has also headed ABC Sports, a separate legal entity now branded as ESPN on ABC, since March 3, 2003.

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. The name of the sport company was lengthened to "ESPN Inc." in February 1985.

ESPN markets itself as "The Worldwide Leader in Sports". Most programming on ESPN and its affiliated networks consists of live or tape-delayed sets of events and sports-related news programming (such as SportsCenter). The remainder includes sports-related talk shows (such as Around the Horn, Jim Rome is Burning, Outside the Lines, "SportsNation", and PTI), sports-related documentaries, films (such as "3: The Dale Earnhardt Story"), and original series (such as "The Bronx Is Burning").

History

Early months

ESPN was originally conceived by Bill Rasmussen, with support from Scott Rasmussen and Don Rasmussen,[1]. Bill was a television sports reporter for WWLP (channel 22), the NBC affiliate in Springfield, Massachusetts.[2] 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, Bristol Red Sox, 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.[3]

ESPN started with the debut of Sportscenter hosted by Lee Leonard and George Grande. Afterwards was a pro slow pitch softball game.[4] 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 aired 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.

Professional sports arrive

ESPN (along with the USA Network) was among the earliest cable-based broadcast partners for the National Basketball Association (NBA). Lasting from 1982 to 1984, the network's relationship with the association marked its initial foray into American professional sports. After an 18 year hiatus, ESPN (by then, under the auspices of the ABC network), secured a $2.4 billion, six-year broadcast contract with the NBA, thereby revitalizing its historic compact with U.S. professional basketball.

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.[5] 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."[6]

In 1990, ESPN added Major League Baseball to its lineup with a $400 million contract.[7] 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.[8] 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.[9]

ESPN broadcasts 65 sports, 24 hours a day in 16 languages in more than 200 countries.[10]

Expansion

ESPN set itself apart from its competition by using the top reporters for each of their respective sports by the early 1990s. Some examples included: Peter Gammons (baseball), Chris Mortensen (football), Al Morganti (hockey), David Aldridge (basketball), and Mel Kiper, Jr. (NFL Draft). Other well-known reporters include Andrea Kremer, Ed Werder, Mark Schwartz, and Greg Garber.

The 1990s and early 2000s saw a considerable growth within the company. ESPN Radio launched on New Years Day, 1992 and has seen tremendous sucess.[11] 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 purchased Classic Sports Network and renamed it ESPN Classic. The youngest ESPN network in the USA, ESPNU, began broadcasting on March 4, 2005.

ESPN International was started 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 (the corporate logos of both networks were redesigned to match the look of ESPN's logo). In 2004, ESPN entered the European market by launching a version of ESPN Classic. Then in December 2006 it agreed to purchase North American Sports Network, and on February 1, 2009 NASN was re-branded as ESPN America. SportsCenter's primary three broadcasts on ESPN America each day are at 1am ET (which re-airs usually until 9am ET), 6pm ET, and 11pm ET.

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.[12]

From 1996 onward ESPN was closely integrated with ABC Sports. 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. As a result, all of ABC's sports programming now uses ESPN on ABC. However, ABC Sports is still legally separate from ESPN due to ESPN's joint ownership arrangement with Disney and Hearst.

In 1998, ESPN began using "Skycam" for their broadcasts of the NHL. The system was later put to use in baseball, basketball, and football games.[5] In April 2009, ESPN opened a broadcast production facility in downtown Los Angeles as a part of the L.A. Live complex across from Staples Center. The five-story facility houses an ESPN Zone restaurant on the first two floors and two television production studios with digital control rooms on the upper floors. One of the studios hosts late-night editions of SportsCenter.[13] In 2007, ESPN signed an agreement with the Arena Football League to broadcast at least one game every week, usually on Monday nights. In January 2008, ESPN signed a multi-million dollar contract with professional gaming circuit, Major League Gaming (MLG).

On August 3, 2009, ESPN began broadcasting in the United Kingdom and Ireland for the first time, having been awarded the domestic rights to 46 Barclays Premier League matches for the forthcoming season, and 23 matches each for the following three seasons, due to the cancellation of the Premier League's contract with Setanta Sports over a missed payment. The deal only affected television rights within the U.K.; international rights (held in the U.S. at the time by Fox Soccer Channel and Setanta Sports North America) were not initially affected, but Setanta would later shutter its U.S. operations (most of Setanta's former rights are now held by FSC's spinoff channel Fox Soccer Plus). Also in the US, ESPN now has rights to at least one Premier League and one La Liga game a week.[14]

On January 5, 2010, ESPN announced plans for a new network, ESPN 3D, to premiere on June 11, 2010. The new network will broadcast 85 sporting events in 3D during its first year, including the FIFA World Cup match between South Africa and Mexico and the 2011 BCS National Championship Game. ESPN has been testing 3D broadcasting for more than two years. Additional broadcasts may include up to 25 World Cup matches and the Summer X Games.[15] On January 5, 2011, a year after the announcement of the ESPN3D launch, ESPN announced that ESPN3D will go to 24 hour a day programing on February 14, 2011.[16]

On February 7, 2011, the primary standard definition feeds of ESPN, ESPN 2 and ESPNU switched from the 4:3 fullscreen to the 16:9 letterbox aspect ratio, becoming the third, fourth and fifth cable channels, respectively to be broadcast in the letterbox format full-time (after cable news channels Fox News Channel and CNN); unlike Fox Sports Net, which switched to letterbox format one week earlier, the three ESPN networks broadcast all programming (sports telecasts, sports news and opinion programs such as SportsCenter and commercial advertisements) letterboxed, while video broadcast exclusively in standard definition is pillarboxed. ESPNews and ESPN Classic continue to be broadcast in the 4:3 fullscreen format for their SD feeds.

Controversy

See also: Criticism of ESPN

Ownership history

As mentioned, Bill Rasmussen founded the channel. Just before ESPN launched, Getty Oil Company (later purchased by Texaco, which in turn was acquired by Chevron) agreed to buy a majority stake in the network.

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."[17]

Although ESPN has been operated as a Disney subsidiary since 1996, it is still technically a joint venture between Disney and Hearst.

ESPN HD

ESPN HD

ESPNHD, launched on March 30, 2003, is a 720p high-definition simulcast of ESPN. ESPNHD (along with sister networks ESPN2 HD, ESPNU HD, ABC HD, Disney Channel HD, ABC Family HD, and Disney XD HD) uses the 720p HD line standard because the ABC executives proposed a progressive 'p' signal that resolves fluid and high speed motion in sports better, particularly during slow motion replays.[18]

All Bristol and L.A. Live studio shows, along with most live events on ESPN, are produced in high definition. ESPN is one of the few networks with an all-digital infrastructure. Shows that are recorded elsewhere − such as Jim Rome Is Burning (Los Angeles) are presented in a standard definition, 4:3 format with stylized pillarboxes. Pardon the Interruption and Around the Horn have begun airing in HD on September 27, 2010.[19] ESPN, however, maintains a policy that any video that originates in high definition must remain in HD when aired on ESPNHD.

In 2006, the network has come under considerable scrutiny from industry technicians and early adopters of HD due to a perceived degradation in picture quality, specifically during live events.[20]

In Latin America, the 720p high-definition version of ESPN was launched as "ESPN HD" on April 28, 2009 (only Brazil) and on December 1, 2009 in other countries.[21]

When ESPN converted their standard-definition feeds to letterboxed versions of the HD channels in 2011, ESPN dropped "HD" from all their channels at that time.

ESPN 3D

Main article: ESPN 3D

On June 11, 2010, ESPN launched ESPN 3D, United States' first 3DTV channel. The first programming in the format was the 2010 World Cup. ESPN states another 100 live events will be in 3D in the first year.[22]

Executives

  • George Bodenheimer: President, ESPN, Inc.[23]
  • Sean Bratches: Executive Vice President, Sales and Marketing[24]
  • Christine Driessen: Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer[25]
  • Ed Durso: Executive Vice President, Administration[26]
  • Charles Pagano: Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer[27]
  • John Skipper: Executive Vice President, Content[28]
  • Norby Williamson: Executive Vice President, Studio and Remote Production[29]
  • Russell Wolff: Executive Vice President and Managing Director, ESPN International[30]

ESPN significant programming rights

ESPN and its family of networks (ESPN on ABC, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN Plus and to a lesser extent ESPN Classic) have rights to the following sports and events (note: this list doesn't represent ESPN America since that division of ESPN broadcasts outside of the USA):

NFL

  • 1987–1989 (Sunday Night; exclusive cable; second half of season only)
  • 1990–1997 (Sunday Night; second half of season only; TNT carried first half)
  • 1998–2005 (Sunday Night; exclusive cable; entire season, selected Thursday & Saturday night games)
  • 1988–1994, 2003–2005, 2010 (Pro Bowl, acquired rights from ABC, excluding 2010 which it acquired from CBS)
  • 2006–2013 (Monday Night Football)

ESPN College Football

ESPN Major League Soccer

  • 1996–2014

FIFA

ESPN Major League Baseball

  • 1990–2013

Little League World Series

NBA on ESPN

  • 1982–1984
  • 2002–2016

WNBA on ESPN

  • 2002–2016

College basketball on ESPN

  • NCAA Tournament: 1980–1990 (Contract with NCAA)
  • ACC (some telecasts, including games in the conference tournament, are blacked out in ACC markets): until 2023 [31]
  • Big Ten Conference: 1979–2017
  • Big 12: 2008–2016, ESPN Plus (ESPN Plus has exclusive rights to some games in Big 12 markets to protect stations purchasing its syndicated package)
  • Big East: 1979–2013, ESPN Plus

Tennis Grand Slams: As of 2009 ESPN co-owns the cable rights to all four of tennis' grand slams with The Tennis Channel. ESPN also televises other tennis events.

PGA Tour on ESPN

  • 1980–present

LPGA Tour on ESPN

  • 1979–present

Champions Tour on ESPN

  • 1995–present

PBA Tour

  • 2000–present

NASCAR on ESPN

  • 1981–2000 (Contracts with individual races)
  • 2001–2002 (Contract with NASCAR, Truck Series only)
  • 2007–2014 (Contract with NASCAR)

NHRA

  • 1980(?)–2000 (Contracts with individual races)
  • 2001–2013 (Contract with NHRA)

German Bundesliga

  • ?-2012. GolTV will usually air 2 matches each round. 2 matches each round have been sublicensed to ESPN, Inc. for Spanish-language telecast on ESPN Deportes and Internet streaming at ESPN3.com. GolTV and ESPN, Inc. alternates picks each round, with one company having picks 1 and 4 and the other company having picks 2 and 3.

La Liga

  • 2009-

Premier League

  • 2009-

Australian Football League

  • 2009-2011

Thoroughbred Racing on ESPN

  • ?-present

ESPN may sometimes acquire the rights to programming in other sports which airs only via Internet streaming on ESPN3, usually because another broadcaster holds the TV rights.

Former rights

Indy Racing League

  • 1996–2007 (ESPN continues to produce the broadcasts of five races that air on ABC, including the Indianapolis 500.)

Champ Car World Series on ESPN

  • 1980–2001
  • 2007 (series merged with IRL, beginning with the 2008 season)

ESPN National Hockey Night

  • 1985–1988 (National television deal, agreements with individual clubs as early as 1979)
  • 1992–2004

Major Indoor Soccer League

  • 1985–1987
  • 2005–2006 (championship games only)

UEFA Champions League

  • 1995-2009

The Arena Football League on ESPN

  • 1989–2002
  • 2007–2008 (contract was scheduled to end in 2011 but was broken due to the AFL's bankruptcy)

ESPN has become a part of popular culture since its inception. Many movies with a general sports theme will include ESPN announcers and programming into their storylines (such as in Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, which gently lampoons the channel's multiple outlets by referencing the as-yet-nonexistent ESPN8, "The Ocho,"[33] a reference to a nickname formerly used for ESPN2, "the Deuce"). In the film The Waterboy, Adam Sandler's character Bobby Boucher has his college football accomplishments tracked through several fictional "SportsCenter" newscasts including the "Bourbon Bowl." Also, ESPN.com Page 2 columnist Bill Simmons often jokes that he is looking forward to running a future network; SportsCenter anchors appeared as themselves in music videos by Brad Paisley (I'm Gonna Miss Her (The Fishin' Song)) and Hootie and the Blowfish (Only Wanna Be With You); and the 1998 TV series Sports Night was based on an ESPN-style network and its titular, SportsCenter-analogue flagship sports results program. Also, in a deleted scene from the film Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, Ron Burgundy is fictitiously interviewed for a position on SportsCenter in which he claims that the idea (of a 24 hour sports network) will never become popular.

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.[34][35][36]

Many Star Wars enthusiasts claim the mask worn by the character Boba Fett is a homage to the "N" in the ESPN logo. George Lucas neither confirmed or denied the claim.

ESPN business ventures

Current

The ESPN family of networks

Television

ESPN Now

ESPN Now
CountryUnited States
Programming
Language(s)English
Ownership
OwnerThe Walt Disney Company (80%)
Hearst Corporation (20%)
Links
WebsiteESPN Now

ESPN Now was a former rolling digital cable barker channel which aired from 2001–2004 and featured a scoring ticker, along with ESPN and Go.com promotional advertising. It mainly was used to promote ESPN's college sports pay per view packages to viewers. The channel was eventually discontinued with the rise of video on demand.

Internet

Radio

Network-wide preemption

Several times ESPN programming has been drastically altered because of coverage of world events.

Both ESPN and ESPN2 carried ABC News coverage of the September 11, 2001 attacks. The only original program produced after the preemption was a shortened 6pm edition of SportsCenter which focused on covering the cancellations of sporting events in reaction to the terror attacks.

ESPN carried most of the first round of the 2003 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament due to CBS News's coverage of the invasion of Iraq. The games were still produced by CBS and distributed to the correct markets through cable companies. The only ESPN identifier was the bottomline graphic, which ran throughout the entire telecast.

Network slogans

  • The Total Sports Network (1979-1985?)
  • The Number One Sports Network (1985?-1991)
  • All Sports, All the Time (1991-1994)
  • America's #1 Sports Network (1994-1998?)
  • The Worldwide Leader in Sports(present)

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b "Bill Rasmussen, the Father of Cable Sports." ESPNFounder.com
  2. ^ Sports Junkies Rejoice! The Birth of ESPN, by Bill Rasmussen. Published in paperback in 2010.
  3. ^ ESPN: An Uncensored History, by Michael Freeman. Published in 2000
  4. ^ ESPN at ten: a look back at one of the networks that changed the face of television sports, HighBeam (via Cable Television Business), Retrieved 2-9-2011.
  5. ^ a b ESPN's 30th Anniversary - 30 ESPN Firsts & Innovations ESPN MediaZone
  6. ^ ESPN: The Uncensored History
  7. ^ ESPN, Encyclopedia Britannica, http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9002482/ESPN
  8. ^ "ESPN decides not to match Comcast's offer". ESPN. August 18, 2005.
  9. ^ "ESPN calls time out on scripted fare", Variety, vol. 407, No. 1, May 21–27, 2007, p. 22
  10. ^ ESPN Inc Encyclopedia Britannica
  11. ^ ESPN's 30th Anniversary - Milestones ESPN MediaZone
  12. ^ , The Sporting News, December 30, 1996 {{citation}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  13. ^ Greg Johnson, ESPN is on schedule to land in L.A. in 2009, Los Angeles Times, December 18, 2007.
  14. ^ ESPN snaps up Premier League TV packages, ESPN.com, 22 June 2009
  15. ^ a b ESPN 3D to show soccer, football, more ESPN, January 5, 2010
  16. ^ ESPN3D goes to 24-hour programming, ESPN.com 5 January 2011
  17. ^ Santoli, M.. (2008, February). The Magics Back. Barrons, 88(8), 27-29,31. Retrieved February 16, 2011, from ABI/INFORM Global. (Document ID: 1435830791).
  18. ^ ESPN HD
  19. ^ ESPN Yakkers Go HD Next Week TVPredictions.com September 20, 2010
  20. ^ What's Up With ESPN HD?
  21. ^ Espn HD en latinoamerica a partir 1 de diciembre OMBUDS CABLE - Comunidad de TV para abonados
  22. ^ 3DTV 2010 Event: Bratches Bullish on ESPN 3D Uptake
  23. ^ "The Walt Disney Company - George W. Bodenheimer Executive Biography". The Walt Disney Company. Retrieved April 7, 2007.
  24. ^ "SEAN R. H. BRATCHES Executive Vice President, Sales and Marketing". ESPN. Retrieved April 7, 2007.
  25. ^ "CHRISTINE F. DRIESSEN Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer". ESPN. Retrieved April 7, 2007.
  26. ^ "EDWIN M. DURSO Executive Vice President, Administration". ESPN. Retrieved April 7, 2007.
  27. ^ "CHUCK PAGANO Executive Vice President, Technology". ESPN. Retrieved April 7, 2007.
  28. ^ "JOHN SKIPPER Executive Vice President, Content". ESPN. Retrieved April 7, 2007.
  29. ^ "NORBY WILLIAMSON Executive Vice President, Studio and Remote Production". ESPN. Retrieved April 7, 2007.
  30. ^ "RUSSELL WOLFF Executive Vice President and Managing Director, ESPN International". ESPN. Retrieved April 7, 2007.
  31. ^ a b ESPN, ACC Connect On $1.9 Billion Rights Deal Multichannel News July 8, 2010
  32. ^ "Little League Chronology". Little League Online. Retrieved April 7, 2007. ESPN2 broadcasts started in 1997.
  33. ^ "Movie Preview: Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story". Entertainment Weekly. April 21, 2004. Retrieved July 30, 2008.
  34. ^ Parents name baby after ESPN, Joe Montana, NBC Sports, October 9, 2006
  35. ^ "Texas toddler at least third named ESPN". ESPN. June 16, 2006.
  36. ^ Hiestand, Michael (February 7, 2006). "Lampley nearing most-called Olympics". USA Today. Retrieved June 9, 2008. ESPN says it's heard of at least 22 babies named ESPN
  37. ^ ESPNStar.com


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