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While ESPN is perhaps the most successful sports network ever (debuting on September 7, 1979), it has not been free from criticism. This article covers many of the criticisms, including accusations of biased coverage and controversies with individual broadcasters and analysts.
Arena Football League coverage
Main article: Arena Football League on ESPNAFL fans in America complain that the TV schedule “inequitably favors teams” such as the Philadelphia Soul, Chicago Rush and Colorado Crush, teams whose ownerships include, respectively, Jon Bon Jovi, Mike Ditka and John Elway. The Soul (whose part-owner and team president is former AFL on ESPN analyst Ron Jaworski) have appeared in seven of the 17 regular season games on ESPN platforms, more than any other team in the league. This criticism was also present when NBC went out of their way not to let some teams appear on their schedule. In 2008, the Chicago Rush had nine regular season games on ESPN and ABC, while the 2007 Arena Bowl Champion San Jose SaberCats had just one, week one against the Chicago Rush. The AFL is now defunct.
Bias towards certain teams
See also: East Coast Bias and Media biasESPN is often accused of having a bias towards certain teams and a love affair with Brett Favre. The ESPN ombudsman, Le Anne Schreiber addressed this.
Since MLB Network went on the air on January 1, 2009, Baseball Tonight has been the target of criticism because of its perceived bias in favor of certain ballclubs such as the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox, in particular. The most vocal comment was expressed by Heath Bell:
ESPN Classic
Main article: ESPN ClassicIn a cost-cutting move, the schedule (as of July 31, 2007) is largely composed of ESPN original programming, highlighting sports such as poker, bowling, and bass fishing, with less emphasis on re-airing classic games of major-league sports such as National Basketball Association, National Hockey League, NASCAR, Major League Baseball, and National Collegiate Athletic Association games. (Arena Football was added in March 2007 as part of the new TV contract between the league and ESPN, but was dropped by the time of the 2008 season.)
Many of the pro sports games once aired on ESPN Classic are available on MLB Network, NBA TV, NFL Network, MSG Network, Mid-Atlantic Sports Network, New England Sports Network, SportsNet New York, YES Network, NHL Network, SportsTime Ohio, and Versus, among other channels. However, most of the broadcasts on regional sports networks are subject to blackout away from the home team's territory.
Despite the old-time feel of the network, ESPN Classic airs the network's standard Bottom Line with updates of current sports scores.
It is the only U.S.-based ESPN network (and one of two Disney-owned cable channels in the U.S.; ABC Family being the other) to air infomercials; they air from 6 a.m. to 7 a.m. ET, seven days a week.
It has also changed from an emphasis on games of the distant past to games of the recent past. On many occasions, an event will have taken place within the current year ("instant classic" or "best of the year").
In many occasions, the games of the past aired relates to a major event scheduled that weekend, such as historic games within a series that is scheduled for that weekend (such as historic Duke-North Carolina games on the weekend of that game), a historic series of games related with one sports figure (especially if that player is to be enshrined into their sport's Hall of Fame), the anniversary of a major sporting event (such as the 25th anniversary of the 1982 Ray Mancini-Duk Koo Kim fight that featured the broadcast (with English subtitles) of the Kim biopic Champion and the documentary Triumph and Tragedy: The Ray Mancini Story -- that fight resulted in major changes to boxing), or a tribute to a recently deceased figure (as was shown with Kay Yow and Chuck Daly).
ESPN2
Main article: ESPN2ESPN2 debuted on October 1, 1993, as a sister station of ESPN. Nicknamed "the deuce," ESPN2 was to be branded as a network for a younger generation of sports fans featuring edgier graphics as well as extreme sports like motocross, snowboarding, and BMX racing.
Though the "ESPN2 Attitude" was one of the main inspirations for launching the X Games, this format was, in an overall sense, not successful. The so-called MTV Generation was not interested in sports pandered to them in this way, and traditional sports fans were turned off by the youthful gimmick, and several cable companies still refused to include ESPN2 in their basic lineups. In 2001, ESPN2 was reformatted into a second outlet for ESPN programming.
ESPN360
Main article: ESPN360Because ESPN360 is only available to ISPs that have paid for the service (usually cable companies and services such as Verizon's FiOS and DSL services), it has been alleged that ESPN is streaming college sports games only on the service in order to force cable companies and other ISPs to carry it.
For instance, an October 2006 Big Ten matchup between the Wisconsin Badgers and Northwestern Wildcats was only aired live on ESPN360, and most viewers in the state of Wisconsin could not view it, due to ESPN360 not having agreements to be carried by the dominant cable companies in the area, Charter Communications and Time Warner Cable. Wildcat fans in the Comcast-dominated Chicago area also faced the same difficulties, as Comcast also had no ESPN360 deal. The University of Wisconsin–Madison had to receive special permission from ESPN to allow the game to be streamed over their university's computer network for students and faculty. The only way to view the game on television was a late-night tape delay over the state's public television network.
The same scenario has also happened for football games between the Maryland Terrapins/Virginia Cavaliers, and the Boston College Eagles/Buffalo Bulls.
The service is unavailable through dial-up providers like AOL or NetZero because of the requirement of a high-speed connection.
To add to the controversy, ESPN has rolled over its online ESPN GamePlan package to ESPN360 as of September 1, 2007. On-line viewers that do not have an ESPN360 affiliated ISP will be unable receive the Gameplan content online. However, individuals who do have an ESPN360 affiliated ISP will get the ESPN GamePlan content online for free.
Rolling of ESPN GamePlan package to 360 has also prevented Americans living abroad, particularly those in the Armed Forces, from watching games that were previously available on a pay-per-view basis. However, to react to this, ESPN introduced GamePlan International, an online service available for viewers outside the US or Mexico. GamePlan is also available in Europe, Middle East and Africa online.
Beginning in 2008, ESPN360 is offered free to all high-speed college and military IP addresses.
ESPN360 also has the tendency to cut off a live broadcast before it is completed if it goes past a certain time limit (2–5 hours, depending on the event) or (for night events) midnight, even if said broadcast is scheduled to go past midnight. One example was the live feed from ESPN Classic's telecast of the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Awards Banquet.
During the 2009 season, ESPN360 inexplicably dropped all of its NASCAR coverage without warning.
High-Definition coverage
Main articles: ESPNHD and ESPN2HDRecently the network has come under considerable scrutiny from industry technicians and early adopter HD consumers due to a recent noticeable degradation in picture quality, specifically during live events. It is unclear whether this is the result of over-compression, rate shaping or bit starving from cable and satellite providers or something amiss in the ESPN distribution chain.
Integration of ABC Sports
Main article: ESPN on ABCLike its longtime competitors CBS Sports and NBC Sports, ABC Sports was originally the sports division of a major American network, ABC. The seeds of its eventual integration with ESPN occurred when ABC bought majority control of ESPN in 1984. A year later, Capital Cities Communications bought ABC. Although some ESPN sportscasters such as John Saunders and Dick Vitale began to also appear on ABC Sports telecasts, ESPN and ABC Sports continued to operate separately.
After The Walt Disney Company bought Capital Cities/ABC in 1996, Disney started to slowly integrate ESPN and ABC Sports. ESPN personalities like Chris Berman, Mike Tirico, and Brad Nessler worked on ABC Sports programs. In 1998, ESPN adopted ABC Sports' Monday Night Football graphics and music for its Sunday Night Football broadcasts.
On September 2, 2006, the former ABC Sports division was fully integrated into ESPN. Programming on ABC currently has the ESPN logo in the digital on-screen graphic displaying the game score, and use the ESPN BottomLine and SportsCenter In-Game Updates. The change was made to better orient ESPN viewers with the programming on ABC. The brand integration does not directly affect whether ESPN (the cable channel) or ABC carries a particular event, as in most cases this is governed by contracts with the applicable league or organization. Perhaps confusingly, this meant that some events, such as British Open, would be broadcast with ESPN branding during ABC coverage, even though another channel (in this case TNT) owned the cable rights.
Reaction to the change from ABC Sports to ESPN on ABC
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