John Skipper is the Executive Vice President of Content at ESPN. He “oversee[s] content in all its forms for all ESPN and ABC Sports television, radio, Internet, publishing, wireless, broadband and Enterprises operations,” and reports directly to George Bodenheimer. Skipper replaced Mark Shapiro when the latter left the network in 2005. He was ranked #15 on The Sporting News Power 100 in 2006.
Skipper is partly responsible for the creation and format of ESPN the Magazine; his ‘try something different’ mantra has led to the magazine capturing “the wit and attitude of ESPN through the inclusion of commentary from personalities like Chris Berman.” Skipper also oversees ESPN Enterprises, including ESPN.com.
Skipper is also bullish on soccer, despite low ratings (the MLS Cup averaged an 0.8 rating in November). “If we get ESPN behind soccer in this country, it is almost impossible for me to believe that we can’t move this forward. … I believe we can make the time between World Cups more relevant to soccer fans.”
When asked if ESPN Original Entertainment, which gave sports fans ‘Tilt’ and ‘Playmakers’ was scaling back, Skipper made this statement: ?My anticipation is that we will have more product on the air next year than this year, more this year than last year.? Among possible new projects for EOE: “We are looking at animation. We want to target young guys. We are just exploring it, and we just met with some people who could bring us some. Target-wise, not subject wise, you look at Family Guy, Adult Swim, The Simpsons?that is a very good way for us to go to target young guys. Our goal is to have something in the next six months.”
