ESPN

Categories: ESPN | Mexico television networks | TV channels with British versions | United States television networks | Walt Disney Company subsidiaries

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ESPN, formerly an abbreviation of 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 Bill Rasmussen, along with Donny Stanley and his son Cardell, and launched on September 7 1979. Its signature telecast, SportsCenter, 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, including its newest network ESPNU. ESPN is available in over 90 million homes in the United States. The name of the company was shortened to "ESPN Inc." in February 1985.

1 History
2 Other business ventures
3 Music
4 ESPN in Popular Culture
5 The ESPN Family of Networks
6 Shows
7 ESPN Original Entertainment programs
8 ESPN Movies
9 Personalities (past & present)
10 External links
11 See also

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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 sport relatively unknown in the U.S., such as Australian Rules Football, as well as the short-lived United States Football League (USFL), 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 (which was purchased by Texaco) and Nabisco. In 1984, the entire family of ESPN networks and franchises are owned by ABC (the American Broadcasting Company) (80%) (which became part of The Walt Disney Company in 1996) and the Hearst Corporation (20%).

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Other business ventures

ESPN launched the ESPN Radio network on January 1, 1992; ESPN The Magazine on March 11, 1998; and its ESPN Zone franchise of restaurant/entertainment complexes in Baltimore, Maryland on July 11, 1998. ESPN Club opened at Walt Disney World in the 1990s, before ESPN Zone opened.

ESPN launched their own website, known as ESPN SportsZone, in 1995. After 1998, the site was renamed to ESPN.com. In 2001, ESPN's internet ventures expanded to include a new website called Page 2, which features sports opinion columns from several writers, most notably Skip Bayless, Bill Simmons and Scoop Jackson. Late writers Ralph Wiley and Hunter S. Thompson were also frequent contributors.

The ESPY Awards are also administered by ESPN, having been initiated by the network in 1993. Proceeds from the event go to the V Foundation, a cancer-fighting nonprofit group founded in honor of and continuing in memory of former basketball coach Jim Valvano, who delivered an emotional speech at the first ESPY awards show, mere weeks before his death.

Starting with their 2004 lineup of sports games, Sega acquired the ESPN license to integrate their "TV show look & feel" into its franchise of video games covering America's major professional sports leagues and college basketball. The deal, now owned by Take Two Interactive, will end after the 2005-2006 sports season. After the 2005-2006 season, Electronic Arts has acquired the ESPN license to use for 15 years on their video games. [1]

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Music

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.

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ESPN in Popular Culture

ESPN is 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 don't even watch sports are familiar with ESPN. A few examples:

In the movie Dodgeball, a major dodgeball tournament is broadcast by ESPN 8 ("The Ocho"): "If it's almost a sport, we've got it!" There is no ESPN 8.

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