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ESPN (which formerly stood for the 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 Austin Stark, and launched on September 7 1979 under the direction of Chet Simmons, who was the network's first President and CEO (and the United States Football League's (USFL) first commisioner). 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, 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. 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.
HistoryEarly years
Image:ImageAgentProxyoldESPNLogo.gif ESPN logo 1979-early 1985 Executives from Getty Oil Co. 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, bowling, professional wrestling, boxing, and additional college football and basketball games. Even Cockfights were put on the show to fill the time. 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.
Professional Sports ArriveIn 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. Today, ESPN's NFL games are on Monday nights, with NBC showing the Sunday night games. 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 Leagues in North America until deciding not to renew the deal with the NHL after the lockout, citing ratings for original programming was comparable to those of NHL broadcasts.[2] ExpansionThe 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. Ownership historyAs 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.[3] High definition telecastsIn 2004, ESPN opened its High Definition center in Bristol, Connecticut. Many shows, including Sportscenter, Baseball Tonight, NFL Live 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 with Linda Cohn and Rece Davis on June 7, 2004.Executives[citation needed]
ESPN Significant programming rights
ESPN Major League Baseball [2]
ESPN2 Major League Soccer (soon to be renamed ESPN Major League Soccer)
The Arena Football League on ESPN
WNBA on ESPN(Originally the WNBA on ESPN2)
PBA Tour presented by Denny's on ESPN
Champ Car World Series on ESPN
CriticismsESPN has been criticized for having an East Coast bias, in that they devote a disproportionate amount of time to sports teams in the Northeastern United States. The all-sports network also devotes much of its airtime to perceived "fan" favorites, such as the Dallas Cowboys, Notre Dame Fighting Irish,New York Yankees, and Duke Blue Devils, historically bandwagoning popular teams with biased commentary . ESPN has also been criticized for making sports that they could spread more awareness of, like soccer, hockey, wrestling, and bowling, into laughingstocks by its hosts and journalists.[citation needed] Some would argue, however, that this is purely reflective of the typical American sportsfan's tastes, and does not indicate a widespread negative bias in ESPN's coverage. ESPN is also known to provide more prominent coverage to sports in which it owns a vested stake (such as the Women's College Basketball and the Arena Football League), while reducing or eliminating coverage when the opposite is true (such as the NHL, after ESPN gave up the broadcast rights to Versus in 2005). MusicESPN has had its own theme music for quite a few years, but early on it used source music.[citation needed] 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.[citation needed]
ESPN in popular cultureESPN 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:
ESPN business venturesCurrent
Former
The ESPN family of networksTelevision
Internet
Radio
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