MEDIA TIP SHEET – ESPN UPFRONT
May 17, 2011 – BEST BUY THEATER, TIMES SQUARE
PLEASE NOTE: EXECUTIVES WILL BE AVAILABLE FOR INTERVIEWS AFTER THE EVENT IN THE STAGE AREA
HOSTED BY Michelle Beadle, co-host of SportsNation and Scott Van Pelt, SportsCenter anchor
PARTICIPANTS (in order of appearance)
Robert A. Iger, President and Chief Executive Officer of The Walt Disney Company.
George Bodenheimer, President, ESPN, Inc. and ABC Sports, Co-chairman, Disney Media Networks
John Skipper, EVP, Content
Mike Greenberg, co-host, Mike & Mike in the Morning
Jesse Palmer, college football analyst
Rece Davis, college football and college basketball studio host
Eric Johnson, EVP, Multimedia Sales
Seth Meyers, Head writer, Saturday Night Live, Host of the ESPYs
Kier Dillon, Winter X Games medalist and analyst
Tony Hawk, Pro skateboarder and action sports icon
Hannah Storm, SportsCenter anchor, HERoics producer
Julie Foudy, ESPN soccer analyst, advisory panel member and contributor to espnW
Sean Bratches, EVP, Sales and Marketing
Clay Matthews, Linebacker, Super Bowl Champion Green Bay Packers [In person and via video]
Adriana Monsalve, co-host, Nación ESPN
Jorge Ramos, ESPN Deportes Host of Jorge Ramos y Su Banda, play-by-play commentator
Kenny Mayne, ESPN anchor, reporter
Sage Steele, SportsCenter anchor
Dana Jacobson, co-host, ESPN’s First Take
Ed Erhardt, President, Customer Marketing and Sales
GUESTS
The Laker Girls
Alfonso Herrera, star of El Diez
Jonathan, the UConn Husky
Oregon Duck
Fireman Ed, beloved NY Jets fan
ANNOUNCEMENTS and PROGRAMMING HIGHLIGHTS
ORIGINAL PROGRAMMING
- New Afternoon Lineup on ESPN2 [See Full Release for Details]
- Begins Monday, September 12. New Shows:
- Dan Le Batard is Highly Questionable
- Hosted by Miami Herald sportswriter, television personality and radio host Dan Le Batard
- 30-minute show will air weekdays afternoons at 4 p.m. ET on ESPN2
- A critical – and sometimes controversial – perspective on the world of professional sports
- Produced by Rydholm Productions, which produces ESPN’s Around the Horn and PTI
- Numbers Don’t Lie
- 30-minute show will air weekday afternoons at 3:30 p.m. on ESPN2
- Tackles the biggest sports stories of the day by providing historical and numerical perspective
- Melds news stories and fantasy sports to debate a variety of topics and make predictions
- Host (to be named later) will be joined by a former player and an expert
- Dan Le Batard is Highly Questionable
- Begins Monday, September 12. New Shows:
- HERoics [See Full Release for Details. Click here for video.]
- Series of short films about women and their contributions to the sport of soccer
- Films will debut on ESPN and appear also on ABC leading up to and during the Women’s World Cup
- Series will live on espnW.com after debuting on air
- New ESPN Films [Click here for video]
- Following the conclusion of the critically acclaimed “30 for 30” series, ESPN Films will debut several new documentaries beginning in October, 2011, to include:
- Catching Hell – The Steve Bartman Story
- Renee – Renee Richard’s Story
- Play On – story of Johann Olav Koss
- Following the conclusion of the critically acclaimed “30 for 30” series, ESPN Films will debut several new documentaries beginning in October, 2011, to include:
- NFL Live
- Expanding to one hour in the Fall
SPORTS PROGRAMMING
- College Football
- 25th Year of Emmy Award Winning College GameDay built by the Home Depot
- First year of a new 12-year deal with the ACC
- Two prime time neutral site games to kick off season: Oregon-LSU in Cowboys Classic and Boise State-Georgia in Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game
- First-ever night game from Michigan Sept. 10
- First two conference games for newest Big Ten member Nebraska
- Two marquee non-conference prime time matchups: Oklahoma at Florida State and Ohio State at Miami on Sept. 17
- Thanksgiving night game: Texas at Texas A&M
- Global X [See Full Release for Details. Click here for video.]
- Beginning in 2013, X Games will expand to include six world-class events around the world – two in the U.S. and four events outside the U.S.
- ESPN will conduct a formal bid process to determine the X Games host cities. Final cities will be selected in 2012 for a three-year agreement
- Soccer
- 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup: June 26 – July 17
- UEFA European Football Championship 2012 – June 8 – July 1
- NASCAR Non Stop [See Full Release for Details. Click here for video.]
- All Chase for NASCAR Sprint Cup Races to Feature Second Half Split-Screen Breaks beginning Sunday, Sept. 18, at 2 p.m. ET from Chicagoland Speedway
- New commercial format will feature a split-screen showing the advertisement on the left and a continuation of racing action on the right
- Scoring ticker will continue to move across the top of the screen, allowing NASCAR fans to follow the running order of the race during the breaks
- In effect for the races that make up the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship
ESPN DEPORTES [See Full Release for Details]
- Launch of ESPNDeportesLosAngeles
- In conjunction with Time Warner Cable, ESPN launches first Spanish-language site fully dedicated to covering sports for the local fan.
- El Diez [Click here for video]
- First original scripted series from ESPN Deportes
- Ten-episode scripted-drama that chronicles the life of a professional soccer player who arrives to Mexico City in search of glory.
- Stars Alfonso “Poncho” Herrera, Mexican actor and world-renowned singer from the band RBD
- E:60
- ESPN Deportes will launch its own version of the ESPN news magazine show featuring a team of reporters pursuing culturally relevant stories that take an inside look at the world of sports. Sports Programming:
- Spanish-language coverage of the World Football Challenge in July
- Exclusive Spanish-language network in the U.S. for UEFA EURO 2012 from June 8 to July 1
- Exclusive Spanish-language coverage of XVI Pan American Games – “Guadalajara 2011” – Oct. 14-30
- Launch of ESPN Deportes on Watch ESPN – by the end of 2011
- Launch of ESPN Deportes HD – system rollouts continuing through 2011
DIGITAL
- Kenny Mayne’s Wider World of Sports [Click here for video]
- Six-part original digital series debuting in the Fall
- Kenny Mayne’s off-kilter storytelling goes global, introducing fans to some of the world’s most interesting athletes, venues and sports
- Grantland
- Bill Simmons new sports and pop culture website debuting in June
- Features all-star lineup of writers including Chuck Klosterman, Malcolm Gladwell and Dave Eggers
- Introduction of Ads on WatchESPN and ESPNNetworks.com
- Launching in select programming in Oct. – College Football, College Basketball, SportsCenter
- Will accept 30-second spots, but will also experiment with different/interactive ad formats
- Will be sold separately
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