 | |
| Country | United States |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Nationwide |
| Headquarters | Bristol, Connecticut |
| Programming | |
| Language | English |
| Picture format | 480i (SDTV) |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | ESPN Inc. (The Walt Disney Company (80%) Hearst Communications (20%) |
| History | |
| Launched | May 6, 1995; 30 years ago (1995-05-06) |
| Closed | December 31, 2021; 3 years ago (2021-12-31) |
| Former names | Classic Sports Network (1995–1997) |
ESPN Classic was an American multinationalpay televisionnetwork owned byESPN Inc., ajoint venture betweenThe Walt Disney Company (which controlled an 80% stake) andHearst Communications (which had 20%).
The channel was originally launched as theClassic Sports Network in 1995, and was acquired by ESPN in 1997. The network originally focused on carrying classic sporting events, other programs and documentaries, and live specials (such as theBaseball Hall of Fame induction ceremony) focusing on sports history.
By the 2010s, due to the increasing number of sport-, league-, andcollege conference-specific networks that had assumed rights to the archive and live content that was historically aired by ESPN Classic, a larger amount of programming was devoted to archive content whose rights were owned by ESPN outright, reruns of recent events from ESPN's networks, as well asESPN original documentaries, and overflow coverage of events from other ESPN networks.
In 2014, ESPN began to phase out ESPN Classic as a linear service, and transition it to a brandedvideo on-demand offering. A number of major providers, such asAT&T,Altice USA,Comcast, andVerizon Fios dropped ESPN Classic in the years that followed. Due to this change in format,ESPNews and ESPN's digital platforms have supplanted its role as an overflow service. In 2021, media reports indicated that the channel would close at the end of the year, and it did so in the late hours of December 31, 2021.
The channel was launched on May 6, 1995, as the Classic Sports Network. The Post-Newsweek Cable (nowSparklight) system inAda, Oklahoma, with 6,500 subscribers at the time of CSN's launch, was the first cable provider to carry the network. CSN was founded byBrian Bedol andStephen Greenberg, both of whom went on to launch College Sports Television (nowCBS Sports Network)), with partial funding fromAllen & Company. In 1997,ESPN, Inc. purchased Classic Sports Network for $175 million,[1] and relaunched it as ESPN Classic the following year. Throughout its history, dating back to its existence as Classic Sports Network, the channel's logo has incorporated a stylized silhouette intending to resemble a boxer.
In February 2008,The Wall Street Journal reported thatNFL Network chief executive Steve Bornstein had been in "high-level discussions" with NFL and Disney executives including CEORobert Iger and NFL CommissionerRoger Goodell. An analyst quoted in the report suggested a merger of NFL Network with ESPN Classic due to the latter's wide distribution on expanded basic cable tiers.[2]
On August 4, 2009,Dish Network filed a federal lawsuit against ESPN for $1 million, alleging that the network breached its contract by not extending the same contractual term of carriage that ESPN provided toComcast andDirecTV forESPNU and ESPN Classic. The lawsuit claimed that ESPN violated the "Most Favored Nations" clause.[3] The following day, representatives for ESPN announced in a press release that the company would fight the lawsuit, stating: "We have repeatedly advised Dish that we are in full compliance with our agreement and have offered them a distribution opportunity with respect to ESPNU and ESPN Classic consistent with the rest of the industry. We will not renegotiate settled contracts and will vigorously defend this legal action, the apparent sole purpose of which is to get a better deal."[4]
On October 1, 2014, ESPN Classic began a gradual transition into avideo on demand-only service, withDish Network becoming the first to discontinue carriage of the linear channel and carry it as a VOD service on that date. Other providers followed suit in the years that followed.[5] In December 2017, cable companiesComcast Xfinity andAltice USA dropped the ESPN Classic linear channel from their TV lineups.[6] On February 4, 2019,Verizon FiOS removed the channel from the lineup.Spectrum, as part of their newest Disney agreement approved in August 2019, began dropping ESPN Classic from their systems on October 15, 2019.[7] On November 4, 2019,Cox Communications removed it from their lineup. On November 30, 2019,DirecTV andAT&T U-verse removed the network from their lineup as the contract for carriage expired without renewal after resolving a dispute earlier in the year withThe Walt Disney Company.[8]Atlantic Broadband dropped ESPN Classic from all of its systems on September 1, 2021.[9]
On November 4, 2021, John Ourand ofSports Business Journal reported that Disney had informed cable and satellite providers that ESPN Classic, including its associated on-demand service, would close at the end of 2021.[10]The Hollywood Reporter later stated that an ESPN spokesperson confirmed that the network would close on December 31, 2021.[11] Commentary on the channel's demise focused on its small distribution (now down to 2 million households, as compared to the flagshipESPN channel's 85 million homes), and the emergence ofYouTube and otherinternet streaming options (including corporate siblingESPN+) as compliments to the channel's mission; the emergence of league-specific networks (including sister channelsACC Network,Longhorn Network, andSEC Network, all of which are co-managed by ESPN Inc.) gave the company additional linear outlets for the content that served as ESPN Classic's main programming, rendering the channel redundant.[12][13][14]
The network officially ended distribution at 5:59 a.m.Eastern on January 1, 2022, after a final airing of theThrilla in Manila, though underNielsen's definition of a broadcast day,[15] it was considered to have ended on December 31, 2021.[16]
TheCanadian version of ESPN Classic, owned by the sameBell/ESPN Inc. consortium that owns the domestic sports multiplexTSN, outlasted the original channel by roughly a year and a half, as it ceased broadcasting on October 31, 2023.[17][18]
In 2008, as part of a cost-cutting move, ESPN Classic's schedule began to become largely composed of ESPN original programming, highlighting sports such aspoker,bowling andboxing, with a decreased emphasis on rebroadcasts of classic major league sporting events (a practice which has, however, been adopted by sports networks associated with a league or individual teams, among other channels). By 2005, the channel had also frequently broadcast overflow programming from the main ESPN channels, and reruns of ESPN-produced telecasts of recent sporting events that the network has declared an "Instant Classic".
ESPN Classic was the only U.S.-based ESPN network (and one of two Disney-owned cable channels in the U.S., alongsideFreeform) that airedinfomercials, which ran daily from 6:00 to 7:00 a.m.Eastern Time. As of May 20, 2012, ESPN Classic was the last remaining ESPN-branded network and the only cable channel owned by Disney that does not operate ahigh definition simulcast feed, due to the majority of its content being vintage footage produced before the existence of high-definition television; outside of specific programming available inwidescreen, the channel aired all programming in the4:3aspect ratio, and it used thesafe area-restricted "BottomLine" sportsnews ticker previously used byESPN on ABC broadcasts on sister networkABC until August 2016 when it switched to a 16:9 presentation. It was also the only ESPN network that is not available on the network'sWatchESPN app for mobile devices as a live feed, likely due to licensing restrictions for the archival content aired on the channel; the few live events it did carry were otherwise listed as provided by ESPN3 on WatchESPN. The network's VOD component was launched for existing subscribers usingApple TV andRoku devices through WatchESPN on April 28, 2016, likely under a modified license to allow content distribution via that platform.[19]
Older sports programming from the 1990s and earlier has moved almost entirely to league-specific networks including theBig Ten Network,MLB Network,NBA TV,NHL Network,NFL Network,Tennis Channel, or various team-ownedregional sports networks. Likewise, archival games from theSoutheastern Conference and theUniversity of TexasLonghorns have respectively moved to the ESPN-operatedSEC Network andLonghorn Network.
By 2011, ESPN Classicdrifted toward a mix ofreruns of entertainment series in prime time, and movies (mostlyESPN Films productions and documentaries such as the30 for 30 series) making up the majority of the channel's weekend schedule. The majority of "classic" sports events in ESPN Classic's program library as of its shutdown werecollege football andbasketball games from the past decade which had not been claimed by conference networks, along withboxing,professional wrestling and bowling events whose copyrights were maintained solely by ESPN.
The first live event to be shown on ESPN Classic was theimplosion of theKingdome inSeattle in March 2000. By 2005 however, ESPN Classic began to broadcast more live sporting events, such as special "ESPN Classic Live" telecasts of college basketball games that featured veteran commentators and older-styled graphics. Around this time, ESPN Classic also began to be used as an overflow channel for programming that could not be shown on ESPN or ESPN2 due to scheduling conflicts (these have since been moved toESPNews); these have included additional college football and basketball games, the "ESPN Classic Game of the Week" (a Sunday rebroadcast of an ESPN/ABC-televised college football game from the previous Saturday),IRL events, live coverage of selectedHBCU games (especially since the term "classic" is used for special neutral-site HBCU games), andtape-delayedUEFA Champions League soccer games.
Examples of live sporting events broadcast by ESPN Classic due to scheduling overruns on ESPN or ESPN2, include the following from the third quarter of 2007:
Since then, these games or events had been shown live on ESPN Classic:
ESPN Classic also served as the official broadcaster of the annualBaseball Hall of Fame induction ceremony until 2009 (when it moved toMLB Network). On August 25, 2012, ESPN Classic aired anAtlantic League baseball game between theSugar Land Skeeters andBridgeport Bluefish; the game featured Major League Baseball legendRoger Clemens as a starting pitcher for the Skeeters.[20] (In 2014, ESPN acquired permanent rights to Skeeters games, but moved the games to its online portal,ESPN3.)
While not a live event, in 2008, ESPN Classic also notably broadcast a previously untelevised college basketball game played on January 23, betweenBaylor andTexas A&M, which Baylor won 116–110 in five overtimes. Due to an unlikely set of circumstances, the actual game, held atReed Arena on the A&M campus, was never televised. ESPN Classic used the feeds from the arena's in-house cameras, normally used to allow highlights to be displayed onJumbotron screens, and the original play-by-play and commentary from A&M's radio broadcasters to create a complete telecast. The telecast aired on March 5 on ESPN Classic before the rematch between the two teamsat Baylor aired on ESPN2.[21]
ESPN Classic was also used for ESPN's multiple-perspective telecasts under theFull Circle and Megacast brands; in these cases, ESPN Classic carried the "Sounds of the Game" feed, which is broadcast without commentary.
Beginning in the mid-2000s, ESPN Classic aired a series of specials counting down the greatest teams in the history of certain sports, as determined by fan balloting. In March 2006, the 1981-82North Carolina Tar Heels won the fan poll for best-ever college basketball team, in October 2006, the 1927New York Yankees won for best Major League Baseball team, and in December 2006, the 1995Nebraska Cornhuskers won the fan poll for best-ever college football team.[22]
Each of these programs featured expert analysis and live interactive voting online atESPN.com, with the first votes being cast one week before the scheduled live show and continued balloting online and viatext messaging until the end of the show.
On January 14, 2007,Deadspin reported that ESPN Classic would no longer develop or air original programming. It was not immediately clear what would replace such programs;[23] however, it was assumed that shows that were already produced, but not yet aired, would be broadcast at least for a few more months.
Over the next few months, new episodes ofMissing Link,Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame andRingside aired as scheduled. However,Missing Link was cancelled in June 2007, at which time production was also halted on the other two programs.
ESPN Classic was parodied in a recurring series ofSaturday Night Livesketches introduced in 2009, which depicted archived broadcasts of obscurewomen's sports events from the 1980s; however, commentators Pete Twinkle and Greg Stink (Jason Sudeikis andWill Forte) consistently know nothing about the sports, and instead focused on promoting the absurdly-exaggerated sponsors, which are alwayswomen's hygiene products.[24][25][26]
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
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Owners:Walt Disney Company (80%);Hearst Communications (20%) | |||||||||||||||||||
