As the worldwide leader in sports multimedia, ESPN continues to connect with more and more fans around the globe. In 2007, highlights included long-term business accords with major sports rights holders and with leading U.S. cable distributors Comcast and Time Warner. And, to further broaden its reach, ESPN acquired or launched several international and digital services – two key drivers for future business growth.
The big winners are ESPN's loyal fans, with NFL Monday Night Football among the top telecasts on cable television, great Major League Baseball match-ups and exciting NASCAR races. ESPN signed a landmark eight-year renewal agreement with the National Basketball Association for content across 17 ESPN platforms as well as potential new digital services. ESPN also signed or implemented long-term multimedia accords with the Big East, Big Ten and Big 12 conferences, Major League Soccer, Arena Football, the WNBA and – for the first time ever – the Masters Tournament (golf).
All of these major rights agreements include international distribution. In addition, ESPN's new multi-year rights agreements for its international networks bring premier content to select countries and to American viewers, including the UEFA Cup, Euro 2008 and Italian Serie A soccer, plus cricket and Rugby World Cup.
ESPN's strong connection with sports fans and its ability to deliver compelling content across platforms have led to multi-year, multi-media sponsorship packages with a growing roster of national advertisers. An impressive 70 percent of ad deals over $2 million now includes at least one medium in addition to television.
For the second consecutive year, ESPN's four most-distributed domestic cable networks, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN Classic and ESPNEWS, collectively increased viewership. ESPNEWS now reaches 62 million homes, up 20 percent in 2007, and will soon telecast in high definition, joining ESPN HD and ESPN2 HD. College sports coverage increased at ESPNU, which doubled its base to 20 million homes. And the Spanishlanguage ESPN Deportes now reaches five million homes.
Top: ESPN's Monday Night Football is the most-viewed series on cable television.
Middle: More than 127 million people watched NASCAR programming on the ESPN networks.
Bottom: ESPN on ABC affords premier broadcast distribution in multiplatform agreements including the NBA and many more sports categories.
