ESPN, Inc., The Worldwide Leader in Sports, is the leading multinational, multimedia sports entertainment company featuring the broadest portfolio of multimedia sports assets with over 50 business entities. The company, which celebrated its 26th anniversary on September 7, 2005, is comprised of seven domestic television networks (ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN Classic, ESPNEWS, ESPN Deportes, ESPNU, ESPN Today), ESPN HD and ESPN2 HD (high-definition simulcast services of ESPN and ESPN2, respectively), ESPN Regional Television, ESPN International (30 international networks and syndication), ESPN Radio, ESPN.com, ESPN The Magazine, ESPN Enterprises, ESPN Zones (sports-themed restaurants), and other growing new businesses including ESPN360 (Broadband), ESPN Mobile (wireless), ESPN On Demand, ESPN Interactive and ESPN PPV. Based in Bristol, Ct., ESPN is 80 percent owned by ABC, Inc., which is an indirect subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company. The Hearst Corporation holds a 20 percent interest in ESPN.

A LITTLE ABOUT OUR HOME - Bristol, Connecticut

• ESPN's Bristol campus contains 27 satellite dishes taking in more than 40,000 feeds per year, recording approximately 200 hours of highlights and program content each day. The Digital Center opened June 7th 2004 and the campus now spans across 64 acres and utilizes 600,000 square feet of building space.
• There are 9 control rooms, 31 edit suites and over 2,000 television monitors on the Bristol Campus.
• ESPN's Digital Center contains 3 studios for a total of 6 on the Bristol campus.
• The Bristol campus has 2,084 parking spaces.
• ESPN's Tape library contains over 1 million tapes.
• ESPN production opertations function 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.






DID YOU KNOW?

• ESPN's signal, traveling at 186,000 miles a second, has gone 150 trillion miles (150,000,000,000,000 miles) in 25 years and the first show is now approaching the star Vega (the 5th brightest star in the night sky) in Lyra. (Light travels about 6 trillion miles in one year). (Source: Gengras Planetarium, September 2003).
• Based on an on-going study of "brand resonance" among 138 national brands (including names like Coca-Cola and McDonalds), ESPN was the #1 brand among men, ahead of (#2) Fidelity Investments and (#3) Hershey's. (Source: Knowledge Networks SRI, 2002).
• Almost every American (97%) has at least heard of the ESPN Brand and a vast majority (87%) is familiar with, and has used, an ESPN product. (Source: ESPN Brand Research Study).
• ESPN and ESPN2 have won 87 Emmy Awards and two Peabody Awards.
• As many as 16,000 fans turn out to watch College GameDay in person.
• As of 2004 ESPN and ESPN2 combined to present all 63 games from the NCAA Women's Basketball Championship, a tournament first.
• X Games IX attracted the largest multi-day event in STAPLES Center history averaging 108,966 people over four days (beating Democratic National Convention in 2000, which had 100,000).
• Today Show host Matt Lauer served as a reporter for ESPN's coverage of the Stanley Cup Finals in 1990.
• ESPN was the first network to air live events from all four major sports in one day on Sunday, April 27, 2003: NFL Draft, NBA playoffs, NHL playoffs and MLB regular season.


AND MORE INTERESTING FACTS…

• ESPN, Inc. includes more than 40 business entities.
• ESPN and ESPN2 combine to televise more than 8,700 hours of live/original hours of sports programming a year.
• In prime time, at any moment, more than 1 million households are tuned to ESPN/ESPN2.
• Each week, over 94 million Americans watch, listen, read or log on to ESPN branded media. (Source: ESPN All Day, Every Day - SRI Knowledge Fall 2003)
• Thirty-one percent (3.6 million) of the 11.6 million men 18 and older watching ad-supported cable networks in unmeasured, out-of-home locations each week are watching ESPN. (Source: ESPN Research/Montesano Marketing Research Total TV Viewing Study, Oct. 24 - Nov. 20, 2002)
• One-fourth (24%) of ESPN's out-of-home viewership comes from colleges and one-third (34%) comes from restaurants and/or bars. (Source: ESPN Research/Montesano Marketing Research Total TV Viewing Study, Oct. 24 - Nov. 20, 2003)
• In an average quarter, over 73% of cable households tune to ESPN at least once.
• NFL games have been cable's highest-rated and most-watched ad-supported cable series for 17 consecutive years. (Source: Nielsen NHI 1987-2003)
• 70 of the top 100 most viewed ad-supported cable programs of all time are NFL games. (Source: Nielsen NHI 1997-2002)
• ESPN2 reached 50, 60, 70, 75 and 80 million households faster than any other cable network previously.
• Over 97% of all ESPN subscribers can also receive ESPN2. (Source: Nielsen People Meter Sample, September 2003)
• During a peak hour, ESPN.com receives 2.3 million page views.
• ESPN.com averages 16 million unique users each month.
• The average ESPN.com visitor spends nearly one hour (54 minutes) on the website each month, 6% more time than any other sports site. (Source: Nielsen Netratings, July 2003)
• In 2Q 2003, 4 million people a week, 9.2 million a month, and 16 million for the quarter (Total Day reach figures for P2+) watched ESPNEWS.
• Since its 1998 launch, 144 ESPN the Magazine issues have been produced.
• Now in its fifth year, ESPN the Magazine has shown a circulation growth of 400% going from a subscriber base of 350,000 (launch 03/98) to 1.75 million (Jan. 04). (Source: ABC Fast-Fax Report, Jan. 2003)
• ESPN Regional Television, headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina produces more than 740 collegiate programs per year.
• ESPN International transmits in 10 languages (Arabic, Cantonese, English, French, Hindi, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Portuguese, and Spanish
  
  
  
  
  
  SPORTSCENTER, "DID YOU KNOW?"
  
• There are six locally produced versions of SportsCenter outside the United States, including editions for Brazil, Canada, China, India, Latin America and Taiwan. These locally produced SportsCenter editions are transmitted in English, Hindi, Mandarin, Portuguese and Spanish - serving almost 60 countries and reaching 85 million television households.
• George Grande, the TV voice of the Cincinnati Reds, was the first SportsCenter anchor.
• SportsCenter's first live remote (Sept. 7, 1979) featured University of Colorado coach Chuck Fairbanks. Unfortunately, the live feed from Boulder, Colo. had video but no audio.
• The first score reported on SportsCenter was Chris Evert Lloyd defeating Billie Jean King 6-1, 6-0.
• ESPN has produced 184 "This is SportsCenter" promo spots since the campaign began in 1995. The campaign has used 35 mascots.
• ESPN televises 32 live editions of SportsCenter per week (generally four times per day) and devotes 87 hours per week to SportsCenter telecasts (including morning repeats) for 1,100-plus original hours of SportsCenter and 2,600-plus hours of re-airs in an average year.
• More than 50 production and technical personnel work on each SportsCenter program.
• Up to 110 games and events from around the globe are screened for SportsCenter per day.
• Approximately 11,000 highlights are shown every year on SportsCenter.
• Up to 12 edit rooms are used daily for SportsCenter.
• A typical one hour SportsCenter program provides an average of 95 insert graphics and 14 animation elements -- that's more than one-and-one-half graphics a minute (the breakdown is 56 lower-third graphics, 21 full screen and 18 over-the-shoulder).
• The Digital Center opened June 2004, and SportsCenter now utilizes its eighth set in 25 years, not including temporary sets built in the middle of the SportsCenter newsroom and in the ESPN lobby.