Editing ESPN (section)

==History==
{{main|History of ESPN}}

===Background and Launch===
[[File:ESPN HQ.jpg|thumb|Headquarters in [[Bristol, Connecticut]]]]

[[Bill Rasmussen]] came up with the concept of ESPN in May 1978, after he was fired from his job with the [[World Hockey Association]]'s [[Hartford Whalers|New England Whalers]]. Rasmussen and his ESPN co-founder Ed Eagan, joined by Rasmussen's son [[Scott Rasmussen|Scott]] (who had also been let go by the Whalers), first rented office space in [[Plainville, Connecticut]]. However, the plan to base ESPN there was put on hold because of a local ordinance prohibiting buildings from bearing rooftop [[satellite dish]]es. Available land to build their own facility on was quickly found in [[Bristol, Connecticut]] (where the channel remains headquartered to this day), with funding to buy the property provided by [[Getty Oil]], which purchased 85% of the company from Bill Rasmussen on February 22, 1979, in an attempt to diversify the company's holdings. This helped the credibility of the fledgling company; however, there were still many doubters about the viability of their sports channel concept. Another event that helped build ESPN's credibility was securing an advertising agreement with [[Anheuser-Busch]] in the spring of 1979; the company invested $1 million to be the "exclusive beer advertised on the network".<ref name="A">{{cite news|last=Kleinfield|first=N.R.|title=ABC To Acquire ESPN As Texaco Sells Its 72%|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/05/01/business/abc-to-acquire-espn-as-texaco-sells-its-72.html|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=May 1, 1984|access-date=August 30, 2021|url-status=live|archive-date=March 9, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230309204147/https://www.nytimes.com/1984/05/01/business/abc-to-acquire-espn-as-texaco-sells-its-72.html}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Potts|first=Mark|title=ABC to Buy Texaco's ESPN Cable Channel|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1984/05/01/abc-to-buy-texacos-espn-cable-channel/6e5a4aeb-8885-4b64-88dd-4a3924e5cd6e/|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|date=May 1, 1984|access-date=August 30, 2021|url-status=live|archive-date=September 3, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180903215449/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1984/05/01/abc-to-buy-texacos-espn-cable-channel/6e5a4aeb-8885-4b64-88dd-4a3924e5cd6e/}}</ref>

[[File:ESPN's Old Logo.png|thumb|ESPN's first logo, used from 1979 to 1985]]
ESPN launched on September 7, 1979, beginning with the first telecast of what would become the channel's flagship program, ''[[SportsCenter]]''. Taped in front of a small live audience inside the Bristol studios, it was broadcast to 1.4 million cable subscribers throughout the United States.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-04-19-sp-1301-story.html|title=Dishing It Out : ESPN, the Little Network That Could, Finds There's 24-Hour Sports Audience|date=April 19, 1988 |author=Larry Stewart|work=Los Angeles Times}}</ref>  One month after launch, [[Chris Berman]] joined the network; he would continue to be an on-air fixture for decades.

===1980s to 2000s===
ESPN's next big step forward came when the channel acquired the rights to broadcast coverage of the early rounds of the [[NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament]]. It first aired its games in March 1980, helping bring attention to what is today known as "[[NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament|March Madness]]". The channel's tournament coverage also launched the broadcasting career of [[Dick Vitale]], who at the time he joined ESPN had just been fired as head coach of the [[Detroit Pistons]].

In April of that year ESPN began televising the [[National Football League Draft|NFL Draft]], bringing it also to a mass audience and over time creating a television "event". That same month the network began broadcasting [[Boxing on ESPN|Top Rank Boxing on ESPN]], marking the beginning of its involvement with televised [[professional boxing]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://bigfightweekend.com/news/40-years-of-top-rank-boxing-on-espn/|title=40 Years of Top Rank Boxing on ESPN|date=April 10, 2020|access-date=December 28, 2021|archive-date=December 28, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211228181909/https://bigfightweekend.com/news/40-years-of-top-rank-boxing-on-espn/|url-status=live}}</ref> The show lasted 16 years, and ESPN has since shown boxing live intermittently with other shows including [[ESPN Friday Night Fights]] and others. For a period during the 1980s, the network had boxing tournaments, crowning champions in different boxing weight divisions as "ESPN champions".
 
The next major stepping stone for ESPN came throughout a couple of months in 1984. During this period, the [[American Broadcasting Company]] (ABC) purchased 100% of ESPN from the Rasmussens and Getty Oil.<ref name="A" /> Under Getty ownership, the channel was unable to compete for the television rights to major sports events contracts as its majority corporate parent would not provide the funding, leading ESPN to lose out for broadcast deals with the [[National Hockey League]] (to [[USA Network]]) and [[NCAA Division I college football]] (to [[TBS (American TV channel)|TBS]]). For years, the [[National Football League|NFL]], [[National Basketball Association|NBA]], and [[Major League Baseball]] refused to consider cable as a means of broadcasting some of their games.<ref name="B">{{cite news |last1=Wolverton |first1=Brad |last2=López-Rivera |first2=Marisa |last3=Killough |first3=Ashley C. |title=A Powerful League Piles Up Its Advantages |newspaper=Chronicle of Higher Education |date=September 4, 2009 |volume=56 |issue=2 |pages=A1–A28 |url=http://chronicle.com/article/Rise-of-the-SEC/48197/ |access-date=November 11, 2015 |archive-date=November 11, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151111201559/http://chronicle.com/article/Rise-of-the-SEC/48197/ |url-status=live}}</ref> However, with the backing of ABC, ESPN's ability to compete for major sports contracts greatly increased, and gave it credibility within the sports broadcasting industry.

Later that year, the [[Supreme Court of the United States|U.S. Supreme Court]] ruled in ''[[NCAA v. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma]]'' (1984) that the [[National Collegiate Athletic Association|NCAA]] could no longer monopolize the rights to negotiate the contracts for college football games, allowing each school to negotiate broadcast deals on their own. ESPN took full advantage and began to broadcast a large number of NCAA football games, creating an opportunity for fans to be able to view multiple games each weekend (instead of just one), the same deal that the NCAA had previously negotiated with TBS.<ref name="B" /> ESPN's breakthrough moment occurred in 1987 when it secured a contract with the NFL to broadcast eight games during [[1987 NFL season|that year's regular season]] – all of which aired on Sunday nights, marking the first broadcasts of Sunday NFL primetime games. ESPN's ''[[ESPN Sunday Night Football|Sunday Night Football]]'' games would become the highest-rated NFL telecasts for the next 17 years (before losing the rights to [[NBC]] in 2006).<ref name="C">{{cite news|last1=Goodwin|first1=Michael|title=ESPN Ends Season in Middle of Pack|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/12/29/sports/tv-sports-espn-ends-season-in-middle-of-pack.html|date=December 29, 1987|access-date=January 10, 2023|archive-date=January 10, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230110144255/https://www.nytimes.com/1987/12/29/sports/tv-sports-espn-ends-season-in-middle-of-pack.html|url-status=live}}</ref> The channel's decision to broadcast NFL games on Sunday evenings resulted in a decline in viewership for the daytime games shown on the major broadcast networks, marking the first time that ESPN had been a legitimate competitor to NBC and CBS, which had long dominated the sports television market.

In 1992, ESPN launched [[ESPN Radio]], a national [[sports talk radio]] network providing analysis and commentary programs (including shows such as ''[[Mike and Mike in the Morning]]'' and ''[[The Herd with Colin Cowherd|The Herd]]'') as well as audio play-by-play of sporting events (including some simulcast with the ESPN television channel).<ref name="A" />

On October 10, 1993, [[ESPN2]] – a secondary channel that originally was programmed with a separate lineup of niche sports popular with males 18–49 years old (with [[snowboarding]] and the [[World Series of Poker]] as its headliners) as well as serving as an overflow channel for ESPN – launched on cable systems reaching to 10 million subscribers.<ref name="A" /> It became the fastest-growing cable channel in the U.S. during the 1990s, eventually expanding its national reach to 75 million subscribers.<ref name="A" />

Ownership of ABC, and thus control of ESPN, was acquired by [[Capital Cities Communications]] in 1985.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1985/03/19/capital-cities-communications-to-buy-abc-for-35-billion/7e2d4fa9-144b-4704-8d2e-498bc5496057/|title=Capital Cities Communications To Buy ABC for $3.5 Billion|first=David A.|last=Vise|date=March 19, 1985|access-date=December 23, 2017|newspaper=The Washington Post|archive-date=December 23, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171223161021/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1985/03/19/capital-cities-communications-to-buy-abc-for-35-billion/7e2d4fa9-144b-4704-8d2e-498bc5496057/|url-status=live}}</ref> ESPN's parent company renamed themselves as Capital Cities/ABC Inc. Capital Cities/ABC Inc. was then acquired by [[the Walt Disney Company]] in 1996<ref>{{cite news|title=THE MEDIA BUSINESS;Disney and ABC Shareholders Solidly Approve Merger Deal|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/01/05/business/the-media-business-disney-and-abc-shareholders-solidly-approve-merger-deal.html|author=Geraldine Fabrikant|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=January 5, 1996|access-date=July 8, 2013|archive-date=October 4, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131004224033/http://www.nytimes.com/1996/01/05/business/the-media-business-disney-and-abc-shareholders-solidly-approve-merger-deal.html|url-status=live}}</ref> and was re-branded as [[Walt Disney Television]].

===2000s===
Challenges began to appear in the 2000s. ESPN began to shed viewers, more than 10 million over a period of several years in the 2010s even while paying large sums of money for the broadcast rights to properties like the NFL, [[NBA]] and [[College Football Playoff]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/26/sports/espn-layoffs.html?_r=0|title=A Struggling ESPN Lays Off Many On-Air Personalities|date=April 26, 2017|author=Joe Drape and Brooks Barnes|periodical=The New York Times|access-date=April 26, 2017|archive-date=April 29, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170429112214/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/26/sports/espn-layoffs.html?_r=0|url-status=live}}</ref>

On April 26, 2017, approximately 100 ESPN employees were notified that their positions with the sports network had been terminated, among them athletes-turned-analysts [[Trent Dilfer]] and [[Danny Kanell]], and noted journalists like [[NFL]] [[Beat reporting|beat reporter]] [[Ed Werder]] and [[Major League Baseball]] expert [[Jayson Stark]].<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.si.com/tech-media/2017/04/26/espn-layoffs-firings-list-details|title=ESPN layoffs: Firings list, details on state at network &#124; SI.com|date=April 26, 2017|author=Richard Deitsch|magazine=Sports Illustrated|access-date=October 28, 2017|archive-date=August 30, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170830170536/https://www.si.com/tech-media/2017/04/26/espn-layoffs-firings-list-details|url-status=live}}</ref> Further cost-cutting measures taken included moving the studio operations of [[ESPNU]] to Bristol from [[Charlotte, North Carolina]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/business/article146919714.html|title=ESPN layoffs hit Charlotte offices|date=April 26, 2017|author=Katherine Peralta|periodical=The Charlotte Observer|access-date=April 27, 2017|archive-date=April 26, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170426235610/http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/business/article146919714.html|url-status=live}}</ref> reducing its longtime MLB studio show ''[[Baseball Tonight (MLB)|Baseball Tonight]]'' to Sundays as a lead-in to the [[Sunday Night Baseball|primetime game]] and adding the [[MLB Network]]-produced ''[[Intentional Talk]]'' to [[ESPN2]]'s daily lineup.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://awfulannouncing.com/espn/espn-layoffs-baseball-tonight-intentional-talk.html|title=ESPN cutting Baseball Tonight to Sundays only, partnering with MLB Network on Intentional Talk|date=April 27, 2017|author=Ian Casselberry|periodical=Awful Announcing|access-date=April 27, 2017|archive-date=April 28, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170428142546/http://awfulannouncing.com/espn/espn-layoffs-baseball-tonight-intentional-talk.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

On April 12, 2018, ESPN began a supplemental [[over-the-top content|over-the-top]] streaming service known as [[ESPN+]].<ref name="verge-espnplusapril">{{cite news|url=https://www.theverge.com/2018/4/2/17188752/espn-plus-launching-april-12th-pricing-features-content|title=ESPN+ will launch on April 12th for $4.99 per month|work=The Verge|access-date=April 3, 2018|archive-date=April 2, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180402224831/https://www.theverge.com/2018/4/2/17188752/espn-plus-launching-april-12th-pricing-features-content|url-status=live}}</ref>

After having last carried national-televised [[National Hockey League|NHL]] games in 2004, ESPN and ABC agreed in March 2021 on a seven-year contract to televise games, with some airing on [[ESPN+]] and [[Hulu]]. The contract also awarded four of the seven Stanley Cup Finals to both ESPN and ABC. All other nationally televised games would air on [[TBS (American TV channel)|TBS]] and [[TNT (American TV network)|TNT]] under a separate deal the league struck with [[Turner Sports]] the following month.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Hayes |first1=Dade |last2=Pedersen |first2=Erik |title=Turner & NHL Ice Seven-Year Rights Deal Including Some Playoff & Stanley Cup Final Games, HBO Max |url=https://deadline.com/2021/04/turner-looks-to-skate-in-on-nhl-rights-after-nbcuniversal-bails-will-pucks-fly-on-hbo-max-1234744602/ |website=Deadline |access-date=April 27, 2021 |date=April 27, 2021 |archive-date=May 18, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210518175909/https://deadline.com/2021/04/turner-looks-to-skate-in-on-nhl-rights-after-nbcuniversal-bails-will-pucks-fly-on-hbo-max-1234744602/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

On August 8, 2023, ESPN and [[Penn Entertainment]] announced a deal to brand Penn's sportsbooks with ESPN branding. Penn's existing Barstool Sportsbook would be rebranded as [[ESPN Bet]] in late-2023.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Manzo |first1=John R. |title=ESPN to Launch ESPN BET in a New Agreement with PENN Entertainment |url=https://espnpressroom.com/us/press-releases/2023/08/espn-to-launch-espn-bet-in-a-new-agreement-with-penn-entertainment/ |website=ESPN Press Room U.S. |access-date=August 8, 2023 |date=August 8, 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Weprin |first1=Alex |title=ESPN Inks $2B Deal for Gambling Venture With Penn Entertainment |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/digital/espn-bet-sportsbook-penn-entertainment-barstool-sold-1235559140/ |website=The Hollywood Reporter |access-date=August 8, 2023 |date=August 8, 2023}}</ref>

On February 6, 2024, ESPN announced a joint venture with [[Fox Sports (United States)|Fox Sports]] and [[TNT Sports (United States)|TNT Sports]] known as [[Venu Sports]], including the three organizations' main linear sports channels and associated media rights. It was originally planned to launch in fall 2024.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/06/business/espn-fox-warner-sports-streaming.html|title=Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Join Forces for Sports Streaming Service|first1=Benjamin|last1=Mullin|first2=Kevin|last2=Draper|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=February 6, 2024|access-date=February 7, 2024}}</ref> However, following legal issues (including an antitrust lawsuit by [[FuboTV]]), the service was ultimately cancelled.<ref name=THR2025>{{Cite web |last=Weprin |first=Alex |date=January 10, 2025 |title=Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery and Fox Pull the Plug on Venu Sports Streaming Venture |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/venu-sports-dead-streaming-service-pulled-before-launch-1236106145/ |access-date=January 10, 2025|website=The Hollywood Reporter |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://deadline.com/2024/02/disney-espn-streaming-launch-date-bob-iger-1235818372/|title=Disney Reveals Timing Of ESPN Stand-Alone Streaming Launch|first=Dade|last=Hayes|work=[[Deadline Hollywood]]|date=February 7, 2024|access-date=February 8, 2024}}</ref> In May 2025, ESPN announced that it would officially launch an ESPN-branded direct-to-consumer product later that year, which will incorporate ESPN's main channels and content from ESPN+, and become the main streaming offering for all ESPN subscribers.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |last=Steinberg |first=Brian |date=2025-05-13 |title=ESPN’s New $29.99 Per Month Streaming Service to Launch in Fall |url=https://variety.com/2025/tv/news/espn-launch-29-99-per-month-streaming-service-1236395311/ |access-date=2025-05-13 |website=Variety |language=en-US}}</ref>