ESPN, Inc. was the idea of a sports announcer named Bill Rasmussen. After the New England Whalers of the World Hockey Association fired him as announcer and communications director in 1978, Rasmussen looked for a way to bring the basketball games of the University of Connecticut to homes through broadcast. At that time, Rasmussen leased the underutilized satellites of a cable operator named RCA. Because as a new player RCA is looking for customers, it allowed Rasmussen to lease Satcom 1 using his credit card. Rasmussen named his company Entertainment Sports Programming Network, or ESP Network. Later, the name was shortened to ESPN.
ESPN began its operations in September 1979. The first sports event broadcasted by ESPN was the world series softball game between Kentucky Bourbons and Milwaukee Schlitzes. Anheuser-Busch was ESPN’s first sponsor with an advertising sponsorship worth $1.4 million.
In 1979, Getty Oil invested $10 million in ESPN for a controlling interest in the company. To boost the company’s revenue, the company started billing monthly subscription fees of 6 cents per subscriber. In 1985, each ESPN subscriber pays 10 cents.
In 1983, ESPN’s client base was recorded at 28.5 million and was cited as the largest cable network that time. In January 1984, ABC Inc. invested in the company for a 15% interest giving ESPN a more secure financial condition. The following years gave ESPN broadcasting rights from major sports organizations like the National hockey League, National Football League and Major League Baseball.
ESPN created ESPN International to oversee its international broadcasts. ESPN Latin America and ESPN Asia were also opened. In 1991, ESPN Radio was also launched in 200 radio stations.
In 1994, ESPN also developed Extreme Games to broadcast extreme sports. Later on, Extreme Games was changed to X Games.
In 1995, The Walt Disney Company purchased ESPN’s mother company. The acquisition gave Disney Company 80% interest in ESPN. Disney Publishing launched ESPN: The Magazine in 1998. In the first year, about 400,000 copies of the magazine were circulated.
ESPN landed other major sports contract over the course of time, including other major sports events like basketball, soccer, boxing and the Olympics. ESPN had many acquisitions making it at the forefront of the competition in sports broadcasting. Many more investment concepts are on the table waiting for implementation in the future.