THIS IS SPORTS CENTER...

September 8, 1999
		Media correspondent Terence Smith reports on the 20th anniversary, growth and success of 24-hour, all-sports channel ESPN. The NewsHour Media Unit is funded by a grant from the Pew Charitable Trusts.

July 29, 1999: How falling ratings are impacting network TV. July 12, 1999: The 24-hour cable news channels vie for viewers. June 14, 1999: The media phenomenon surrounding George W. Bush. June 1, 1999: A new survey finds quality journalism sells. May 21, 1999: The former editor of the New York Times on journalism. April 30, 1999: Cops and cameras. April 26, 1999: The Internet as a news source. March 3, 1999: The media "Get" Game Jan. 13, 1999: The growth of network news magazines. Nov. 13, 1998: New News Part 2: Cable and broadcast television. Nov. 6, 1998: New News Part 1: Changes in print and Internet journalism Browse the NewsHour's coverage of the media.   ESPN.com Fox Sports CNN/SI	JIM LEHRER: ESPN, the 24-hour, all-sports channel, turned 20 yesterday. Media Correspondent Terence Smith has our report. TERENCE SMITH: This is ESPN... ESPN PRODUCER: No, it was better stuff. I saw him like in his whites. TERENCE SMITH: ...the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network... ESPN PRODUCER: He's got to talk soon, right? TERENCE SMITH: The most successful sports franchise in cable television history at age 20. In sports, when an athlete comes from nowhere to become a star, he's known as a phenom. In sports broadcasting, ESPN is a phenom. It has mushroomed in its 20 years from a modest regional sports channel here in Bristol, Connecticut, into a cable heavyweight champion. Today it reaches 76 million homes in the United States, and is heard in 21 languages overseas. ESPN not only has a worldwide reach, it is vastly profitable. One statistic illustrates how it has changed the world of sports broadcasting and challenged network television. Last year, ESPN made a reported $600 million net profit, more than all three of the major broadcast networks combined.
	Humble beginnings to cable powerhouse
	TERENCE SMITH: When ESPN President George Bodenheimer started in the mailroom back in 1981, the future was far from certain. There were many skeptics who found the notion of sports 24 hours a day obsessive, to say the least. GEORGE BODENHEIMER, President, ESPN: We provided much commentary for stand-up comics, such as Johnny Carson and the like, who thought this notion was quite absurd. But we knew better. TERENCE SMITH: ESPN and the cable audience grew together. CHRIS BERMAN, Anchor, ESPN: We rode cable's coattail as cable rode our coattails. TERENCE SMITH: Anchor Chris Berman joined ESPN one month after its launch. CHRIS BERMAN: Nobody could've predicted that cable TV in the 1980's exploded geometrically rather than arithmetically, and that's what exploded us. TERENCE SMITH: ESPN will cover more than 65 sports this year, including some events you might not know were sports. Richard Sandomir covers sports broadcasting for the New York Times. RICHARD SANDOMIR, New York Times: You'll see cheerleader championships, aerobics championships-- not to diminish any of that stuff, but it's not exactly the major stuff. TERENCE SMITH: But the offbeat sports gave ESPN a reputation as the place to go for any sport. Case in point: Their coverage of the America's Cup. GEORGE BODENHEIMER : For the majority of non- sailors, the thought of watching a race was the equivalent of watching paint dry. ESPN ANCHOR: Dennis Conner has just ripped his jib. TERENCE SMITH: But ESPN's technological advances conveyed the thrill of sailboat racing and the sense of speed over the water. Suddenly the sport of aristocrats found a wider audience. ESPN ANCHOR: Minneapolis, Minnesota. It's great to have you with us, and welcome back to the NFL on ESPN. TERENCE SMITH: In the late 1980's, the National Football League, impressed with ESPN's production values, awarded the network the first game package ever to run on basic cable. ESPN DIRECTOR: Stand by six with ball one. TERENCE SMITH: Is it fair to say you had to have NFL football? GEORGE BODENHEIMER: In '87, we needed a breakthrough product, not only to put ESPN firmly on the map, but to build cable operators' businesses as well. And it accomplished both.
	A pricey jewel for Disney's crown
	TERENCE SMITH: ESPN was also among the first cable networks to demand a dual revenue stream, charging not only advertisers, but cable operators per subscriber. By the time the Walt Disney Company bought ESPN's parent company, Cap Cities/ABC, in 1995, ESPN was the most valuable jewel in the crown. TERENCE SMITH: What is ESPN worth? GEORGE BODENHEIMER: Well, if you consider that it makes net profits of $500 million to $600 million, it's probably worth several billion dollars-- five, six seven billion dollars, maybe more. TERENCE SMITH: Some estimates put its value far above that. As the size of the ESPN audience grew, so did its impact on how sports news is covered. Executive Editor John A. Walsh: JOHN A. WALSH, Executive Editor, ESPN: Remember, in 1979, a sports news show that you were accustomed to getting on your local news lasted three minutes. And you know what? If there was bad weather, it lasted two and a half, because you had to give it to weather! RICHARD SANDOMIR: The phenomenon of ESPN can be summed up in one little ditty: Dah dah dah, dah dah dah. (SportsCenter theme music) The opening theme of SportsCenter, that is one of the best-known little jingles in America. TERENCE SMITH: The hour-long sports newscast, with its tongue-in- cheek delivery, went on the air on September 7, 1979. It set the style and slightly irreverent tone for the entire network. DAN PATRICK, Anchor, ESPN: The eagle has landed. TERENCE SMITH: SportsCenter Anchor Dan Patrick: DAN PATRICK: I think we're trying to show that we're more than just talking hairdos, or people who put on a tie. TERENCE SMITH: The quirky SportsCenter ad campaign, featuring employees and sports stars, gives viewers an inside, clubby feeling. Here, SportsCenter tackles the millennium. ESPN PRODUCER (In Commercial): Y2K test in three, two, one. Oops. (Sirens wailing) We definitely have a few bugs to work out, but we'll be ready. GEORGE BODENHEIMER : What I always like to say about ESPN is, we take our sports seriously, we don't take ourselves too seriously. LAURA PETRECCA, Advertising Age: The SportsCenter ads are what boosted ESPN up to a cult-like status. ESPN transcends just a network. ESPN is what's cutting edge. TERENCE SMITH: Laura Petrecca writes for Advertising Age. LAURA PETRECCA: ESPN is an advertiser's dream. They like the lucrative and elusive generation X and Y males who have a lot of money to spend, so they're targeting these males and they're saying, "you know what? We're cool and hip, too." TERENCE SMITH: Unlike the broadcast networks' aging audiences, ESPN has a steadily regenerating audience. GIRL: My dorm was co-ed, so of course all the guys dominated the televisions and the remote controls. ESPN ANNOUNCER: No-hitter in the seventh. TERENCE SMITH: The kids who work in ESPN's highlight room never knew life without cable, or without ESPN. ESPN EDITOR: I've been a fan of ESPN SportsCenter as long as I can remember. ESPN EDITOR: She hurt her hand, they took her out. ESPN EDITOR: Cable first arrived in my house when I was about nine or ten, and I remember it was the springtime, and the NHL Playoffs were on.
	Changing the way sports is covered
	TERENCE SMITH: In their lifetimes, national sports reporting is the norm, not just the news of local teams. ESPN EDITOR: Pedro was just unbelievable. ESPN EDITOR: I know he was. TERENCE SMITH: And the nature and tenor of sports news itself has changed. RICHARD SANDOMIR: Because sports news moves so fast now, sometimes newspapers have to react to what ESPN is reporting, or what Fox is reporting. We all have SportsCenter on in the newsroom. We know all know that CNN/SI might be reporting something. TERENCE SMITH: Most newspaper readers already know the scores and have already seen the highlights by the time they get to their newspapers the next morning. RICHARD SANDOMIR: You'll find very few game stories are truly game stories. Now it's an account of something that happened within the game. TERENCE SMITH: ESPN and its competitors are having an impact as well-- not necessarily positive-- on what happens on the court or field. RICHARD SANDOMIR: A lot of players play to be on the highlight reels. Part of the more outlandish play, part of the more creative play in sports sometimes is tied, I think especially in basketball or also the dances that football players have, they want to be on the highlights. DAN PATRICK: We show too many dunks, we show gratuitous violence, we show end zone celebrations. I think what it does is, it gives a child growing up the wrong impression of what it takes to be great. We do show wonderful things. We show you the way the game is meant to be played. But sometimes we show you a little too much kind of on the periphery that doesn't need to be there. I think we've changed what people look for and what they value in sports. Some of that's good, some of it's bad. TERENCE SMITH: While ESPN claims it has always had competition for sports fans, its virtual monopoly on cable is being challenged as never before by competitors CNN/S.I. And Fox Sports Net. Fox Sports, a consortium of 22 regional cable sports networks, is in 68 million homes. Fox hired former ESPN anchors and personnel, particularly the popular Keith Olbermann... KEITH OLBERMANN: Hello! TERENCE SMITH: ...and has waged a strong, flashy promotional campaign. TERENCE SMITH: How did you feel when Keith Olbermann ended up at Fox? GEORGE BODENHEIMER: I wish Keith, as well as any of our former employees, only the best. TERENCE SMITH: Big loss? GEORGE BODENHEIMER: Sure. He's a talent. TERENCE SMITH: With a frenzy of cross- promotion, the ESPN brand name is now on four cable channels; the Internet's ESPN.com; ESPN Radio, with over 600 affiliates; and, since last year, ESPN, the magazine, which already boasts a circulation of 850,000. ESPN MAGAZINE EDITOR: I'm just wondering if it's a little bit clearer with the ball under the arm, or even this one. I mean, this is just a little bit more in your face. TERENCE SMITH: The magazine attempts to build on the edgy hipness of the cable channel. JOHN A. WALSH: Our target audience is the 18- to 34-year-old. We are trying to get younger audiences to grow up with us as a sports magazine. TERENCE SMITH: And coming soon to a city near you, the ESPN Zone, a restaurant and indoor theme park. It's the inevitable next step for a sports outfit owned by Disney. DAN PATRICK: If you look at all the entities we have here, people still want more sports. So I would say we keep supplying, they keep demanding. ESPN DIRECTOR: One minute. ESPN ANCHOR: Anybody got the paper? TERENCE SMITH: Chris Berman sees the success of sports television tied to a search for common ground. CHRIS BERMAN: Sports is one of the last free melting pots that we have. Fathers and sons who may not talk can talk about baseball and football. Rich and poor can talk. Black and white can talk. Now, what else do we have in this country that can really socio and economically kind of bring everybody on one level? There's not much, and sports is it. So I think that... I don't see it topping off. ESPN PRODUCER: We need to make sure we're rolling on this Red Sox post-feed. TERENCE SMITH: There clearly is no end in sight. The prediction is for more sports, earning more money, attracting larger audiences, and becoming, if possible, more central to the American psyche than they already are. ESPN DIRECTOR: Have a good show, everybody.

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