Editing ESPN (section)

===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]].