ESPN

The Disney-owned sports cable network has signed an 11-year contract to exclusively show all rounds of the U.S. Open tennis tournament beginning in 2015, after the current contract with CBS expires. The tournament finals and weekend play have been carried by CBS since 1968.

ESPN President John Skipper said Tuesday he isn’t too worried about proposed legislation from Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) that would allow consumers to pick what channels they want instead of buying a big package of networks. “We don’t think the bill has any momentum,” Skipper said to reporters after ESPN made a presentation to advertisers in New York City. His view that McCain’s legislation is a long shot is shared by many television industry insiders.

President Barack Obama loves to watch sports — and the people who want to catch his eye know it. Companies and trade associations are doing something a little strange: they’re buying up airtime on ESPN. Media strategists offer up the all-sports network as an option to clients who want to get their issues in front of Obama and top White House officials, known as big sports fans and rabid ESPN watchers.

NEW YORK (AP)—  ESPN says that it regrets the “distraction” caused by one of its reporters who described Jason Collins as a sinner after the NBA center publicly revealed that […]

Walt Disney Co. Chairman and Chief Executive Robert Iger faced tough questioning about alleged liberal bias at Disney-owned ABC News and ESPN during the entertainment company’s annual meeting in Phoenix on Wednesday.

ESPN is the 800-pound gorilla of the sports media world, one of the most profitable networks on TV and one of the most successful media companies of the last quarter century. Fox Sports 1 has a chance to do the unthinkable: upset the balance of power.

ABC, ABC Family and ESPN will announce Tuesday that they have adopted the Nielsen Online Campaign Ratings system to measure viewing across both television and online sites, and will base all sales on estimates of what total viewing will be on all those platforms.

The verdict came after three weeks of trial and one day of jury deliberation in a case over a 2005 licensing agreement.

The past few weeks have seen the satellite operator argue in federal court that ESPN failed to honor multiple “most favored nation” (MFN) obligations between about 2006 and 2009. On Wednesday, following at times biting closing arguments, the case went to a jury — a group that may not have known MFN had any application beyond international trade until entering court.

BT has agreed to buy ESPN’s UK and Ireland television business as its bids to loosen BSkyB’s grip on the pay TV sports market with the launch of its own channels. The deal, which includes the ESPN and ESPN America channels, will see BT take on ESPN’s live sports rights package in Britain and Ireland, including live soccer matches from the FA Cup, Scottish Premier League, UEFA Europa League and German Bundesliga.

ESPN has agreed to match NBC’s offer for the Big East, agreeing to pay more than $20M per year for a six-year package, according to several well-placed sources. The two sides still are trying to work out various details about how many games ESPN will carry and where they will air. Sources said the Big East will have to take ESPN’s offer to conference presidents, who will have to vote to approve the deal.

With its massive NFL deal and presumably a renewal with the NBA coming, ESPN can continue to count on hefty per-subscriber fees that look to cross the monthly $7 mark in 2017. Based on distribution in 100 million homes, that would give it an annual take of about
$8.4 billion in affiliate fees alone within five years.

Dish Network Corp. has gone to trial against ESPN Inc. over claims the sports programmer owes it more than $152 million after breaching a contract by offering better deals to rival distributors. The lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Manhattan pits the No. 2 U.S. satellite company against the sports affiliate of media group Walt Disney Co.

BRISTOL, Conn. (AP) — ESPN anchor Stuart Scott says his cancer has returned. Scott announced on Twitter late Monday night that he would undergo chemotherapy every two weeks but would […]

NEW YORK (AP) — ESPN anchor Hannah Storm returns to the air New Year’s Day, exactly three weeks after she was seriously burned in a propane gas grill accident at […]

Prior to becoming president, Bodenheimer was responsible for affiliate sales, advertising sales, marketing, and research for all of ESPN’s domestic networks, a career path that began with his applying for a job as an affiliate sales representative in Texas.

ESPN has secured rights to the entire college football playoff system coming into effect in January 2015 as part of a deal running through early 2026.

Earlier this year, national cable rep firm NCC Media cut an estimated $3 million deal with ESPN giving it more inventory to offer campaigns. NCC re-sells the space to politicians in college football and other popular programming. In a single slot, NCC can deliver geo-targeted ads to about 20 swing-state markets.

Under the terms of its freshly signed eight-year agreements, Walt Disney Co.’s ESPN, News Corp.’s Fox and Time Warner Inc.’s TBS will pay a combined $12.4 billion — about twice as much as what baseball received for TV rights in previous contracts. “This is a remarkable day for baseball,” Major League Baseball Commissioner Allan “Bud” Selig said in a conference call today.

Walt Disney Co.’s ESPN has renewed its television deal with the Big 12 conference, home to college football powerhouses Oklahoma, Texas and West Virginia. The new deal runs through the 2024-25 season and follows a similar deal Fox Sports struck with the Big 12 last season.

At an average of $700 million a year, the new eight-year is twice as rich as the current deal. Major League Baseball now turns its attention to the rest of its media package, which includes Divisional playoff series, Championship playoff series and the World Series, as well as a Saturday Game of the Week.

ESPN has agreed to pay an average of $80 million a year for the Rose Bowl, industry experts say, which could push the price tag for the playoffs media rights as high as $600 million for an all-in package that includes a championship game, two semifinals and four major bowls each season.

ESPN will kick off an effort to allow more political ads on college and NFL football programs in October and November, according to a report. The sports network signed on with NCC Media LLC, an ad-sales venture, to sell a larger portion of its advertising time to political campaigns.

BRISTOL, Conn. (AP) — Curt Schilling is taking a leave of absence from his job as an analyst for ESPN after his video gaming company filed for bankruptcy. ESPN spokesman […]

Don’t blame Disney’s ESPN for that super-sized monthly cable bill — blame the RSNs, or regional sports networks. That’s the word from Disney CEO Bob Iger, whose No. 1 cable sports channel has long been under fire for being the most expensive channel on the dial and the main reason households pay so much for TV.

ESPN would consider including its WatchESPN application on Apple Inc.’s television device as long as users authenticate they are pay TV customers, network executive Sean Bratches says.