History of ESPN
Eagan approached Bill with the idea of creating a monthly cable television program covering Connecticut sports and was curious to see if the Whalers would be interested in being the main feature on the show.
[1] Though discouraged by his firing, Rasmussen and Eagan began to discuss a new course, Bill Rasmussen's original idea was to create a cable television network that focused on covering all sporting events in the state of Connecticut (for example, the Whalers, the Bristol Red Sox and the Connecticut Huskies), rather than just focusing on one team as Eagan had proposed.
[3] The trio still had to find a way to broadcast their new sports channel and began their research at United Cable, where they were told about a new means of television distribution, satellite communication.
[7] Instead, they chose to buy a parcel of land for $18,000 in Bristol that had been built on a dump, the satellite signal was unaffected in the area, making it an ideal location.
Doherty shared a similar sentiment and after several failed attempts to do so, he approached Stuart Evey, a Getty Oil Company executive who was the vice president of non-oil operations.
[10] Rasmussen organized a meeting with NCAA officials and, following a hastily put together presentation, negotiations began, the parties eventually came to terms.
[10] Though ESP would not launch for some six months, the 1979 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament had garnered considerable attention, as it was watched by 24.1 million viewers, due to the matchup between Larry Bird and Magic Johnson – the tournament is regarded as having an instrumental part in ESP's eventual success due to the fact many viewers called their cable providers asking that they wanted "that channel that has all the basketball.
[13] With the Rasmussens gradually being pushed out of the company, Evey and Simmons continued to move forward, hiring a broadcasting team that included Jim Simpson, George Grande, Bob Ley, Lee Leonard, Greg Gumbel, Chris Berman and Dick Vitale.
[15] Following the conclusion of the telecast, the network aired a men's professional slow-pitch softball game from Lannon, Wisconsin with Joe Boyle working play-by-play, former Yankees player Johnny Blanchard offering color commentary and former Detroit Tigers catcher Jim Price as field reporter.
[16][17] ESPN Broadcast, 1979 APSPL World Series, Game 8, Milwaukee at Kentucky Early programming also included boxing, wrestling and college soccer.
He wrote a logo melody and expanded it for various purposes, and composed themes for all the programs at that time, including a reggae-rock style promotional song.
SportsCenter, the channel's flagship program, would grow in popularity throughout its history and became known for the six-note theme (colloquially referred to as "DaDaDa, DaDaDa") that was written by John Colby, who served as ESPN's music director, producer and composer from 1984 to 1992 (who has also served as the music director and bandleader for the ESPY Awards since the show's inception in 1993, and has composed themes for other ESPN programs and sports telecasts including college sports, NBA and NFL broadcasts, Outside the Lines and ESPNews).
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.
ESPN was also a long time home for motorsports broadcasts as part of their Auto Racing (later ESPN SpeedWorld) block of programming with Larry Nuber and Bob Jenkins in the booth from 1979 to 2006 along with Bob Varsha, Ned Jarrett, Jon Beekhuis, Jackie Stewart, Mike Joy, Dr. Jerry Punch, Eli Gold, Marty Reid, Paul Page, and Ken Squier.
[23] 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.
"[24] Despite it technically being a joint venture, for all intents and purposes, ESPN operates as a division of Disney as a result of the company's controlling interest (as it was with ABC and Capital Cities before it).
Jon Miller and Joe Morgan served as the longtime voices of the network's centerpiece Sunday Night Baseball broadcasts through the 2010 season.
Some examples include: Peter Gammons (baseball), Chris Mortensen (football), Al Morganti (hockey), David Aldridge (basketball) and Mel Kiper, Jr. (NFL Draft).
In April 2009, ESPN opened a broadcast production facility in downtown Los Angeles at the L.A. Live complex, across from Staples Center.
[44] In October 2009, ESPN marked its 30th anniversary with the premiere of 30 for 30, a series of documentaries focusing on major sports stories and events that occurred over the 30 years that the network had been on the air.
After the majority stake of TSN/RDS was sold to CTV (which in turn was acquired by Bell Globemedia in 2011), TSN adopted an ESPN-styled logo, and rebranded its sports news program as SportsCentre (a Canadian English version of SportsCenter).
Bell continues to own majority control and directly operate both TSN and RDS instead of ESPN because of the aforementioned Canadian rules on foreign ownership.
[49] On April 26, 2017, approximately 100 ESPN employees were notified that their position with the sports network had been terminated, among them athletes-turned-analysts Trent Dilfer and Danny Kanell, and noted journalists like NFL beat reporter Ed Werder and Major League Baseball expert Jayson Stark.
[50] The layoffs come as ESPN continues to shed viewers, more than 10 million over a period of several years, while forking over big money for the broadcast rights to such properties as the NFL, NBA and College Football Playoff.
ESPN took advantage of this by teaming with Omaha Productions to produce the Manningcast, a ten-game alternate broadcast series hosted by Peyton and Eli Manning.
ESPN later signed a five-year deal to be the home of the new Monday Night Super Wild Card Game, which included the Manningcast.
On December 12, 2022, ESPN announced that they had partnered with the Superstar Racing Experience (SRX) to bring Thursday Night Thunder back after a 20 year hiatus.
[59] Additionally, the company plans to launch a "flagship" standalone streaming offering, including the ESPN and ESPN2 linear channels, in late summer or fall 2025.
[60] Numerous ESPN employees, including longtime SportsCenter anchor Neil Everett and radio host Max Kellerman were let go as part of the mass layoffs.
This criticism includes accusations of biased coverage, conflict of interest, and controversies about individual broadcasters and analysts' backgrounds and character.
