I have decided to write my IB Business commentary on the successful company of ESPN; the entertainment and sports programing network. ESPN is the leading cable and satellite sports channel. ESPN was founded in September of 1979 with their headquarters located in Bristol, Connecticut. Around 30,000 views watched the very first night of sportscenter hosted by Lee Leonard and George Grande, Lee Leonard was the first to speak on the channel and said “If you love sports...if you really love sports, you'll think you've died and gone to sports heaven." (History of ESPN) The success of ESPN is due to the extensive sports coverage, strong personalities of the broadcasters and the large amounts of coverage available on many types of medias. One of …show more content…
These hosts and commentators have become the face of ESPN by their success as athletes while others in the company have become so well known because of their strong and humorous personalities. Over the years there have been numerous hosts and commentators but they all follow the basic similar characteristics of being exceptionally knowledgeable of sports and witty. When ESPN first began to take off it had only a select number of anchors, but to this day these specific anchors are still tied into starting the huge success of the network over the years. Keith Olbermann and Dan Patrick were ESPN’s top broadcasters in the early 90’s, together the two hosted the beginning stages of sportscenter and wrote “The Big Show”. Dan Patrick was the first anchor to use the slogan “This is SportsCenter”, when it was first stated on the evening show no one really thought much of it until it began to be repeated so often it then became the shows main phrase and their networks ongoing advertising saying(Dan Patrick). Dan Patrick also is famous for starting another commonly used sportscenter saying, while commentating on a NBA game he used the phrase “El Fuego” which is spanish for “the fire”.(Dan Patrick) This term quickly caught on and is still used by many newer commentators on sportscenter. After Keith Olbermann and Dan Patrick began to use witty phrases and slogans on sportscenter the new anchors after them began to as well causing ESPN to be known for their amusing and comical statements. ESPN became amusing to watch and began to draw much attention towards its anchor, eventually the anchors began to be the stars of the show. They became well known celebrities and have much interaction with the basic pop culture aspect of entertainment. Anchors began to spend time with athletes and other celebrities often for whether at events, charities or just as