ESPN

The network is reaching out to Hispanic Millennials, who like their sports information in English and Spanish, with ESPN Nacion. ESPN Deportes’ Freddy Rolón talks about the show’s conception, the network’s goals for the program, and what other Spanish-language programs may be a possibility for ESPN.

NEW YORK (AP) — To a certain segment of the population, Scott Van Pelt is a more popular late-night television star than Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert. That […]

Fresh off its $1 billion investment into streaming shop BAMTech, ESPN is considering a range of configurations for its upcoming OTT platform, including the possibility of selling full season subscriptions for specific sports.

BRISTOL, Conn. (AP) — Vin Scully’s call from the local Dodgers broadcast will be used for one inning during the national telecast on ESPN on Wednesday. ESPN says it will […]

The long-dominant sports network has lost a slew of subscribers while also facing money woes. Sports Illustrated and Fox Sports are joining forces against their rival, giving both more heft.

BRISTOL, CONN. (AP) — Three buildings on the Bristol campus of 24-hour sports network ESPN were evacuated after a construction crew struck a gas line. Deputy Fire Chief Mark McCarthy says […]

ESPN today will formally announce its purchase of a U.S. package of European soccer rights that was agreed to nearly 10 months ago. ESPN agreed to pay around $110 million for a package that includes Euro ’20 and its qualifiers, the European ’22 World Cup qualifiers, a planned UEFA Nations League tournament of friendlies in ’18 and ’20 and the UEFA Nations League Final Four in ’19 and ’21.

Live sports networks in the pay-TV world are like the anchor tenants in a shopping mall. But just as the mall has lost its luster in the Internet age, the pay-TV bundle is unraveling, and sports networks are looking for new ways to peddle their wares.

Disney CEO Bob Iger says the company has bought a $1 billion stake in Major League Baseball’s streaming platform and will use it to launch a new ESPN-branded channel that will not siphon off signature programs or major sports from the cable-based ESPN services. “We view this as a complementary service.”

ESPN and Fox Sports believe that expansion with schools from outside the power five conferences will water down the Big 12 and make it less valuable, not more, sources say. But the Big 12 is financially motivated to add more teams. A clause in the conference’s media deals stipulate that if the Big 12 expands, it would receive pro rata increases in its rights fees.

Disney CEO Bob Iger offered some surprisingly frank responses during a sit-down interview with Mathew Belloni, touching on his progress in China, his future replacement, and ESPN’s recent struggles. Of particular note, Iger announced that ESPN is “creating more product that can be sold directly to the consumer.”

ESPN will buy the second half of the Big Ten’s media rights package, ending months of speculation that the two were about to sever their 50-year relationship. ESPN will pay an average of $190 million per year over six years for essentially half the conference’s media rights package, according to several sources close to the talks.

NBA’s networks TNT, ESPN and ABC all witnessed higher national advertising revenues so far through three rounds of the NBA playoff season.

The technology is expected to become available next year. Networks have been pushing Nielsen for technology to keep up with the changing way people watch TV, and the company said it is working on the ability to regularly measure viewership across all screens in various places, not just TV at home. CBS easily won last week in primetime, averaging 7.6 million viewers. NBC had 5.4 million, ABC had 5.1 million, Fox had 2.8 million, Univision had 1.8 million, the CW had 1.5 million, Telemundo had 1.4 million and Ion Television had 1.2 million.

ESPN and Vice are collaborating on content in a deal that will see films from ESPN’s 30 for 30 series airing on the new Viceland network and Vice Sports producing new series for ESPN, the companies said today. One curious note in the announcement came via ESPN President John Skipper on his upstart new partner: “I applaud [Vice CEO] Shane [Smith] for understanding that television is the smartest path to worldwide leadership.”

Curt Schilling helped the Boston Red Sox end an 86-year championship drought and then immediately started squandering the goodwill he had earned. Even before the celebratory champagne could go flat, […]

The Huskies win their fourth straight women’s college basketball title, but the game drops to a seven-year low on ESPN.