ESPN Classic

ESPN Classic was an American multinational pay television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (with a controlled 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which held the remaining 20%).

The channel was originally launched as the Classic 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 the Baseball Hall of Fame induction ceremony) focusing on sports history.

By the 2010s, due to the increasing number of sport-, league-, and college conference-specific networks that had assumed rights to the archival 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 as ESPN 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 branded video on-demand offering. A number of major providers, such as AT&T, Altice USA, Comcast, and Verizon Fios dropped ESPN Classic in the years that followed. Due to this change in format, ESPNews

History

The channel was launched on May 6, 1995, as the Classic Sports Network. The Post-Newsweek Cable (now Sparklight) system in Ada, Oklahoma, with 6,500 subscribers at the time of CSN's launch, was the first cable provider to carry the network. CSN was founded by Brian Bedol and Stephen Greenberg, both of whom went on to launch College Sports Television (now CBS Sports Network), with partial funding from Allen & 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 that NFL Network chief executive Steve Bornstein had been in "high-level discussions" with NFL and Disney executives including CEO Robert Iger and NFL Commissioner Roger 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 to Comcast and DirecTV for ESPNU 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]

Carriage

On October 1, 2014, ESPN Classic began a gradual transition into a video on demand-only service, with Dish 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 companies Comcast Xfinity and Altice 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 and AT&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 with

Programming

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 as poker, bowling and boxing, 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 United States, alongside Freeform) that aired infomercials, 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 a high 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 in widescreen, the channel aired all programming in the 4:3 aspect ratio, and it used the safe area-restricted "BottomLine" sports news ticker previously used by ESPN on ABC broadcasts on sister network ABC 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's WatchESPN 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 using Apple TV and Roku 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 the Big Ten Network, MLB Network, NBA TV, NHL Network, NFL Network, Tennis Channel, or various team-owned regional sports networks. Likewise, archival games from the Southeastern Conference and the University of Texas Longhorns have respectively moved to the ESPN-operated SEC Network and Longhorn Network.

By 2011, ESPN Classic drifted toward a mix of reruns of entertainment series in prime time, and movies (mostly ESPN Films productions and documentaries such as the 30 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 were college football and basketball games from the past decade which had not been claimed by conference networks, along with boxing, professional wrestling and bowling events whose copyrights were maintained solely by ESPN.

Broadcasting of live events

The first live event to be shown on ESPN Classic was the implosion of the Kingdome in Seattle, WA 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 to ESPNews); 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 selected HBCU games (especially since the term "classic" is used for special neutral-site HBCU games), and tape-delayed UEFA 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 annual Baseball Hall of Fame induction ceremony until 2009 (when it moved to MLB Network). On August 25, 2012, ESPN Classic aired an Atlantic League baseball game between the Sugar Land Skeeters and Bridgeport Bluefish; the game featured Major League Baseball legend Roger Clemens as a starting pitcher for the Skeeters.[20]

launch date	May 6, 1995
closed date	December 31, 2021
picture format	480i (SDTV)
owner	ESPN Inc. (The Walt Disney Company (80%) Hearst Communications (20%))
country	United States
language	English
area	Nationwide
headquarters	Bristol, Connecticut
former names	Classic Sports Network (1995–1997)

History

Carriage

Programming

Broadcasting of live events

Cessation of original programming

List of programs broadcast by ESPN Classic

In popular culture

External links

References

Closure

Fan interactive specials