1985: BANNER YEAR FOR ESPN
ESPN, America’s largest cable network, completed several major programming acquisitions in 1985 and, for the first year, became profitable on an operating basis.
ESPN President and Chief Executive Officer J. William Grimes said, “In 1985, we further enhanced our reputation as THE network for sports coverage in auto racing, college basketball, golf, hockey and tennis. And, just this month, we announced a horse racing series for 1986 which will solidify our position as the network of record in that sport as well.
“From both a programming and a corporate standpoint, 1985 was a banner year, ending in profitability for ESPN,” he added. “We are looking forward to even greater opportunities in 1986.”
NEW PROGRAMMING DEVELOPMENTS CORPORATE ANNOUNCEMENTS
Auto Racing — live Formula One New logo & corporate name
CFA — new two-year contract Affiliate fee increase to 19 cents/month
U. S. Olympic Festival — three-year deal Record rating — 8.0 for Georgetown at
Bowling — PBA Summer Tour St. John’s basketball
ACC Basketball — five-year deal “Nation’s Business Today” — morning
“Spirit of Excellence” — Olympic retrospective business program premieres
ESPN Theatre — “The Babe” & “Lombardi” Anheuser-Busch renews major
Jersey Derby — $2 million bonus sponsorship
NHL — three-year contract Organizational realignment — Werner,
:28:58 — innovative score service Bornstein promoted
America’s Cup — exclusive network in ‘87 36.9 million subscriber homes
Horse racing — 18 top races in ‘86
A summary of 1985’s key developments follows:
January
- ESPN increases standard affiliate fee to 19 cents/month per subscriber.
- ESPN introduces its new logo and adopts new corporate name, ESPN, Inc., replacing Entertainment and Sports Programming Network.
February
- ESPN basketball telecast of eventual Final Four participants St. John’s and Georgetown — ranked #1 and #2 — achieves an 8.0 rating (2.9 million households) making it the highest-rated and most-watched telecast in ESPN history.
June
- ESPN signs its 10,000th affiliate — Continental Cablevision of W. Bloomfield, Mich.
- ESPN begins marketing its service to home earth station owners by authorizing the reception of ESPN’s signal through a home receiver licensing package.
July
- :28:58 debuts, a unique system to provide score updates every half-hour during prime time without interrupting the telecast of a live event.
- ESPN’s 10 days of National Sports Festival coverage becomes the largest production and technical undertaking in the network’s history.
- ESPN and the National Hockey League sign three-year agreement for exclusive national cable rights to NHL games beginning in 1985.
September
- Auto Racing ‘85 provides live coverage of NASCAR’s Southern 500 and Bill Elliott’s successful drive to the “Winston Million.”
November
- ESPN realigns its executive management structure, promoting Roger L. Werner to Executive Vice President, ESPN and Steven M. Bornstein to Senior Vice President, Programming and Production.
December
- ESPN remains America’s largest cable network, received in more than 36.9 million households nationwide.
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