Latest in ESPN

In deals collectively worth more than $100 billion, the NFL has reached 11-year rights extensions with existing TV partners and also taken the league into uncharted digital waters. Fox, NBC, CBS and ESPN will remain homes for weekly games, but ABC is re-entering the mix and Amazon Prime Video will take over Thursday…

Reunited, and it feels so good. The National Hockey League will be back on ESPN in the fall after 16 years as the league and cable net have agreed to a new seven-year TV deal. It’s the latest stint for the NHL on the Disney-owned Worldwide Leader, which aired games at various times during the 1980s, ’90s and 2000s…

ESPN is looking into alleged comments byt college basketball analyst Dan Dakich last week during an argument about monetary compensation — or lack thereof — to collegiate athletes. During the back-and-forth, Dakich went after several academics who disagreed with him, using Twitter and his Indianapolis radio show to do…

The NFL flatly denied a report of a preliminary rights deal with Disney, but the league is continuing to hold active talks with all bidders ahead of a key March date. Sports Business Journal reported the Disney pact, though it cautioned that “contracts have not been signed.” It pegged the annual rights fee at $2.6…

After going dark in 2020 due to Covid-19, the Scripps National Spelling Bee plans to resume its century-old annual contest on July 8, with an in-person edition at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Florida. ESPN2 will air the championship round, featuring 10 to 12 spellers. Organizers said the decision to limit…

Zachary Wohlman, the Golden Gloves-winning welterweight known as Kid Yamaka featured in the ESPN+ documentary series Why We Fight and who was the subject of Emmy-winning filmmaker Matt Ogens’ short Kid Yamaka, died Sunday, according to his wife and trainer. He was 32. No other details were given. Wohlman’s death was…

Connor Schell, the former ESPN content chief who left the Disney-owned sports network last year, is setting up a non-scripted studio with Chernin Entertainment. Schell, an exec producer on O.J: Made In America and The Last Dance, will be CEO of the unnamed venture, which will produce high-end, non-fiction projects for…

Pedro Gomez, al ongtime ESPN SportsCenter reporter, died unexpectedly on February 7. No further details were given about the cause of his death. He was 58. James Pitaro, Chairman, ESPN and Sports Content confirmed his death in a statement saying, “We are shocked and saddened to learn that our friend and colleague…

ESPN+ has unveiled a first look at the forthcoming multipart series on Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady and his 21 seasons in the National Football League. Often called the “Greatest of All-Time,” Brady will share a personal first-hand account of his Super Bowl appearances. The series is scheduled for Fall…

The College Football Playoff semifinals on ESPN on New Year’s Day that sent Alabama and Ohio State to the national championship drew an average of 19 million total viewers between them, ESPN said Tuesday, in line with last year’s numbers. Across all ESPN platforms, the CFP Semifinals reached 40.8 million viewers…

To paraphrase President Nixon: ESPN won’t have Dan Le Batard to kick around anymore. The veteran host signed off for good today after doing his TV show Highly Questionable since September 2011. It came a month after the call-’em-like-he-sees-’em host, who also had fronted an eponymous ESPN Radio show, and the company p…

ESPN has expanded its first “MegaCast” of Sunday’s NFL Wild Card playoff game to include streaming service ESPN+ and five Disney networks: ESPN, ABC, ESPN2, Freeform and ESPN Deportes. The Baltimore Ravens-Tennessee Titans matchup will also include a halftime performance by DJ Khaled airing exclusively on Freeform…