ESPN International

ESPN International is a family of networks around the world. It was begun in 1989 and is operated by ESPN Inc. owned by The Walt Disney Company. Some assets Fox Sports International (FSI) is another international sportscasting and production division was join with ESPN following the Disney-Fox merger. The division shares its name with both the United States-based sports division of Fox Corporation, and the chain of regional sports networks that have since been disaffiliated with Fox following their acquisition by Disney.[1][2]

FSI cooperated with CanWest, the owner of Fox Sports World Canada, until its sale to Shaw Communications in 2010.[3]

Operating Regions

Latin America
Main article: ESPN (Latin America)

Spanish-speaking countries

Brazil

Caribbean

Netherlands

Oceania

Sub-Saharan Africa

Japan

Canada
Logos of TSN (left) and RDS (right). Although these channels have kept their original brands after ESPN acquired part-ownership, they now mostly have ESPN-style logos

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.

CTV Specialty Television in turn operates the following sports television channels:

Although these channels have mainly retained their local brands (ESPN having acquired part-ownership several years after TSN and RDS launched), they now mostly have ESPN-style logos and use other ESPN branding elements. TSN has also adopted the SportsCentre title for its sports highlights programs.

Through CTV Specialty, ESPN also has an indirect interest in Discovery Channel Canada and several related channels, which are operated in partnership with Discovery Communications. 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 Discovery 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.

United Kingdom
Main article: ESPN in the United Kingdom
Logos of BT Sport ESPN. Although the channel was acquired by BT in 2013 ESPN have kept their brands licenses after ESPN and BT announced a partnership to digital media initiatives between the two companies and ESPN's international distribution.

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.[4]

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 are owned by ESPN International. The agreement also allows for joint digital media initiatives between the two companies.[5][6]

China

In February 2016, ESPN and Tencent reached an agreement of collaboration. ESPN's content will be localized and exclusively distributed and promoted by Tencent's digital platforms in China, including college basketball games, the X Games and an ESPN section on QQ.com.

Former operations
Fox Sports International logo

Asia-Pacific

In June 2012, News Corporation announced it would acquire ESPN's 50% stake in its joint venture ESPN Star Sports.[7] Following the takeover, ESPN in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Southeast Asia was relaunched as Fox Sports in January 2013,[8] while a version for Mainland China became Star Sports 2 in January 2014. Meanwhile, Star India took over the Indian operations, and relaunched the channels under the unified Star Sports banner in November 2013.

Canada & Latin America

Europe and MENA

Indian subcontinent

Philippines

See also

References
  1. "The Walt Disney Company To Acquire Twenty-First Century Fox, Inc., After Spinoff Of Certain Businesses, For $52.4 Billion In Stock" (Press release). The Walt Disney Company. December 14, 2017. Retrieved December 15, 2017.
  2. "The Walt Disney Company to Acquire Twenty-First Century Fox, Inc., After Spinoff of Certain Businesses, for $52.4 Billion in Stock" (Press release). 21st Century Fox. December 14, 2017. Archived from the original on December 15, 2017. Retrieved December 15, 2017.
  3. "Rogers Communications Buys Stake in Sports Network for C$45 Mln". Bloomberg. December 29, 2004. Retrieved May 10, 2015.
  4. "ESPN snaps up Premier League TV packages". ESPNsoccernet. 22 June 2009.
  5. "BT Sport and ESPN deepen relationship with long-term collaboration". BT plc. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
  6. "BT buys ESPN'S UK and Ireland TV channels". The Guardian. 25 February 2013. Retrieved 16 March 2013.
  7. "News Corp. to Buy Out ESPN's Stake in Asian TV Venture". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
  8. "Fox Sports buys ESPN'S Asia TV channels". Spin. 2013-01-09. Retrieved 2013-11-02.
  9. "NMa: Fox mag Eredivisie Media & Marketing overnemen — Activiteiten in 2012". NMa Jaarverslag 2012. Retrieved 2013-10-31.
  10. "Fox Sports gaat ESPN Sports heten". broadcastmagazine.nl. 1 October 2020. Retrieved 1 October 2020.
  11. "Fox Sports HD - Digiturk Kanalları".
  12. "Yahoo - FOX Sports International Launches New All-Sports Channel for Israel". August 15, 2000. Archived from the original on 2000-08-15.
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