ESPN Inc is an American multinational sports media conglomerate majority-owned by The Walt Disney Company, with Hearst Communications as an equity stakeholder.
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12 Facts About ESPN Inc
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ESPN Inc was founded in 1979 by Bill Rasmussen, initially as an attempt to broadcast Connecticut sports over an "Entertainment and Sports Programming Network" cable channel, and soon became a nationwide cable sports network.
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ESPN Inc was the largest cable channel by the end of 1983 with 28.
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ESPN Inc started out expanding into other nations and additional channels.
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Disney purchased the stake to first develop an ESPN Inc-branded subscription streaming service, later named ESPN Inc+.
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Under the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission's rules regarding foreign broadcasters, ESPN Inc has been prohibited from acquiring majority ownership of any channel operating in Canada.
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ESPN Inc continues to own 20 percent of what is CTV Specialty Television while Bell Media owns the remaining 80 percent.
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In 2006, ESPN Inc acquired the North American Sports Network, later re-branded as ESPN Inc America in 2008.
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ESPN Inc launched a domestic channel in the United Kingdom after acquiring a portion of the local rights package to the Premier League alongside Sky Sports, replacing the now-collapsed Setanta Sports.
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On January 25,2013, ESPN reached a deal to sell its television business in the United Kingdom and Ireland, including ESPN America's programming rights, to BT Group.
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Two years later, ESPN Inc reached a long-term deal with BT Sport for the British rights to ESPN Inc original programming and international event rights.
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