The self-proclaimed Worldwide Leader in Sports has a role in every conceivable sport. But when it comes to major marquee events, the network finds itself lacking.
Despite owning the rights to NBA, NFL and Major League Baseball games, the only professional postseason event ESPN airs is the NBA Playoffs. Baseball playoff games air on TBS and FOX, while the NFL Playoffs air only on broadcast television. ESPN does have the rights to several college football bowl games and to several college basketball conference championships, but the BCS and March Madness are broadcast-only events.
Outside of team sports, ESPN fares better. Despite dumping the PGA Tour, ESPN still has the rights to Thursday and Friday coverage of the U.S. Open, and ESPN2 airs three of the four tennis Grand Slams — the Australian Open, the French Open, and Wimbledon. ESPN also has the rights to the second half of the NASCAR season, but the Chase for the Cup airs only on ABC, and the Daytona 500 is a FOX-only event.
During the biggest events in sports, ESPN finds itself on the outside looking in. The NBA Finals, NASCAR’s Chase for the Cup, the Indianapolis 500, golf’s British Open and tennis’ Australian Open are the only major championship sporting events an ESPN network has the rights to.
Even without the marquee events, ESPN still has a dominant sports lineup.
Monday Night Football is far and away the highest rated, most watched television series on cable. Nine of the top ten most watched events on cable were Monday Night Football games, including a Giants/Cowboys game that drew a 12.8 rating — the highest rating ever for a television program on cable.
ESPN’s top priority after the NFL is Major League Baseball. However, without playoff coverage, ESPN’s commitment to the game will likely decrease (especially towards September, when the network’s NASCAR and college football coverage intensifies). Last year, Monday Night Baseball increased its television rating from a 0.8 to a 1.2, primarily due to Major League Baseball discontinuing blackouts of the games. Sunday Night Baseball increased to a 2.0 rating, comparable to early round cable NBA Playoff games.
Regular season ratings for the NBA are on the same level as Monday Night Baseball, drawing a 1.2 during the 2005-06 season. So far in the 2006-07 season, ratings are flat, even as ratings decline somewhat on TNT and ABC. During the 2006 playoffs, ratings increased dramatically from a down 2005, including the highest ratings ever for ESPN’s portion of the Conference Finals. Airing all but Game 4 of the 2006 Eastern Conference Finals between the Miami Heat and Detroit Pistons, ESPN drew a 4.8 rating, the third-highest Conference Final series average since the new television deal went into place in 2003.
Higher ratings weren’t limited to the NBA Playoffs in 2006; college football had one of its best years ever on ESPN. Florida State/Miami on Labor Day drew a 6.9 rating, while Rutgers/Louisville and Louisville/West Virginia were two of the four most viewed regular season college football games ever on the network. Five bowl games on ESPN drew over a 4.0 rating, including the Alamo Bowl, which drew a 6.0 rating.
ESPN can look forward to significant increases in Sunday afternoon ratings this summer, when the network airs six Nextel Cup races. Additionally, college basketball’s Championship Week usually delivers solid audiences.
While ESPN can count on the NFL, NBA, Major League Baseball, college football, college basketball and NASCAR, there are other small, niche sports that help ESPN’s family of networks. The Australian Open final between Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova drew a 1.9 rating on ESPN2, while golf’s U.S. Open tends to draw a generally solid audience. The Arena Football League and WNBA draw small audiences, but those audiences are essentially confined to one demographic (for example, men 18-34 for the AFL), making them easier for advertisers to market to.
The U.S. leader in marquee sports may be Turner broadcasting (which owns the majority of the rights to the NBA and Major League Baseball playoffs), but ESPN is the leader when it comes to sheer volume and diversity. Every sport but hockey has a firm presence on ESPN, and in multiple forms.
ESPN differs from its competitors in that it is not a sports division. ESPN is a complete series of sport-specific networks, meaning that live events do not constitute the entire line-up. In addition to live sports, ESPN, behind ESPN Original Entertainment, airs documentaries, dramas and movies catering to sports fans, as well as studio and talk shows such as Pardon the Interruption and Cold Pizza.
The state of ESPN’s scripted and studio programming is examined in Part II, and the state of ESPN’s personalities is looked at in Part III.
