espn essay
Report on final assignment: ESPN the Worldwide Leader in Sports
A 24/7 televised sports network? Nowadays sounds like a really great idea, 30 years ago? Not so much. Many people thought this was crazy back in the 70´s, except for one man, Bill Rasmussen, alongside his son Scott and Ed Eagan, they created what today is one of the biggest networks in the entire world, a network that is present everywhere, back in the day they only wanted to create a little network concentrated in Connecticut’s teams, not a great idea right?. They soon began one of the greatest enterprises of our times. ESPN, the worldwide leader in sports.
ESPN was created in 1978 by Bill Rasmussen, his son Scott and Ed Eagan. Bill, who had an affinity with sports for much of his life, was fired from his position as the communications manager for the New England Whalers, a hockey team, in 1978. During his tenure with the Whalers, Rasmussen had met Eagan who displayed an interest in building a career in television. Eagan approached Bill with the idea of creating a monthly cable show covering Connecticut sports and was curious to see if the Whalers would be interested in being the main feature on the show
Though Bill Rasmussen was discouraged by his firing, he and Eagan began to discuss their new project, Bill’s idea was to create a sports network that focused on every team in Connecticut which was different from Ed´s idea that was to focus in only one team, The New England Whalers.
By 1970 only 20% of the houses in the United States had cable TV, this made Rasmussen and Eagan’s project even more difficult.
By the summer of 1978 the trio began to seek support from cable operators and possible investors for their sports channel which they had come to name ESP (Entertainment and Sports Programming Network). They called in 12 representatives of the cable operators to show them their idea, only 5 of them were interested.
Despite their many difficulties ESP Network was incorporated in July 14,
A 24/7 televised sports network? Nowadays sounds like a really great idea, 30 years ago? Not so much. Many people thought this was crazy back in the 70´s, except for one man, Bill Rasmussen, alongside his son Scott and Ed Eagan, they created what today is one of the biggest networks in the entire world, a network that is present everywhere, back in the day they only wanted to create a little network concentrated in Connecticut’s teams, not a great idea right?. They soon began one of the greatest enterprises of our times. ESPN, the worldwide leader in sports.
ESPN was created in 1978 by Bill Rasmussen, his son Scott and Ed Eagan. Bill, who had an affinity with sports for much of his life, was fired from his position as the communications manager for the New England Whalers, a hockey team, in 1978. During his tenure with the Whalers, Rasmussen had met Eagan who displayed an interest in building a career in television. Eagan approached Bill with the idea of creating a monthly cable show covering Connecticut sports and was curious to see if the Whalers would be interested in being the main feature on the show
Though Bill Rasmussen was discouraged by his firing, he and Eagan began to discuss their new project, Bill’s idea was to create a sports network that focused on every team in Connecticut which was different from Ed´s idea that was to focus in only one team, The New England Whalers.
By 1970 only 20% of the houses in the United States had cable TV, this made Rasmussen and Eagan’s project even more difficult.
By the summer of 1978 the trio began to seek support from cable operators and possible investors for their sports channel which they had come to name ESP (Entertainment and Sports Programming Network). They called in 12 representatives of the cable operators to show them their idea, only 5 of them were interested.
Despite their many difficulties ESP Network was incorporated in July 14,