| ESPN International | |
| Producttype: | Television networks |
| Currentowner: | ESPN Inc. (The Walt Disney Company 80%, Hearst Communications 20%) |
| Country: | United States |
| Producedby: | Bill Rasmussen |
| Markets: | Africa Asia Brazil Canada Caribbean Latin America Middle East Netherlands Israel Italy Indian subcontinent Japan Oceania Philippines South Korea United Kingdom |
| Previousowners: | Bill Rasmussen Capital Cities/ABC |
ESPN International is a family of sportscasting and production networks around the world. It was begun in 1983, is operated by ESPN Inc. and owned by The Walt Disney Company.
See main article: The Sports Network and Réseau des sports. ESPN International does not directly operate its own channels in Canada, but owns a 20 percent voting interest (and slightly larger equity interest) in CTV Specialty Television, a subsidiary of the Canadian media company Bell Media. Canadian regulations on the foreign ownership of broadcasters prohibit ESPN from acquiring majority interest.
Although these channels have retained their local brands (ESPN having acquired part-ownership several years after TSN and RDS launched), they adopted ESPN-style logos in 2001, and use other ESPN branding elements such as the SportsCentre title for TSN's sports highlights programs. CTV Specialty also operated a Canadian version of ESPN Classic from 2001 to 2023.
Through CTV Specialty, ESPN also has an indirect interest in Discovery Channel Canada and certain related channels operated in partnership with Warner Bros. Discovery. These holdings date to CTV Specialty's previous incarnations as Labatt Communications and later as NetStar Communications, in which ESPN also held a minority interest. ESPN is not believed to have any involvement with the WBD-branded operations.
ESPN is also indirectly associated with TSN Radio, a brand used by several sports radio stations (each wholly owned by Bell Media), each of which also carries a limited amount of ESPN Radio programming.
See main article: ESPN (Latin America).
See main article: ESPN (Brazil).
See main article: ESPN Caribbean.
See main article: ESPN (Netherlands).
See main article: J Sports.
In June 2012, News Corporation announced it would acquire ESPN's 50% stake in its joint venture ESPN Star Sports.[1] Following the takeover, ESPN in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Southeast Asia was relaunched as Fox Sports in January 2013,[2] while a version for Mainland China became Star Sports 2 in January 2014.
In January 2013, Star India acquired ESPN India from ESPN Star Sports,[3] but kept ESPN brand for a while.[4] ESPN International later established a partnership with what is now Sony Pictures Networks India in October 2015, and relaunched Sony Kix as Sony ESPN in January 2016. Sony ESPN was shut down in March 2020.
See main article: ESPN in the United Kingdom. ESPN launched ESPN Classic in 2006. The company bought the North American Sports Network (NASN) in 2007, and renamed it ESPN America in 2009. Also in 2009, it launched the domestic network ESPN UK after securing rights to the Premier League.[5]
In February 2013, BT Group acquired ESPN's UK and Ireland television channel and remaining broadcasting contracts. Its domestic channel was re-branded as BT Sport ESPN, integrating it with the company's BT Sport channel group. In January 2015, BT Sport and ESPN reached a seven-year agreement to continue licensing ESPN's brand for the channel, as well as British rights to ESPN original programming and events whose international rights were owned by ESPN International. The agreement also allowed for joint digital media initiatives between the two companies.[6] [7] On 1 August 2022, after Warner Bros. Discovery acquired a 50% stake in BT Sport from BT Group, BT Sport ESPN was renamed BT Sport 4,[8] [9] and began to phase out its focus on U.S. sports. In November 2023, ESPN announced an agreement with Sky Sports to sub-license college football and basketball coverage.[10]