page_title: ESPN
hierarchical_section_title: ESPN
caption_attribution_description: English: ESPN Headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut
context_page_description: ESPN is an American multinational basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company and Hearst Communications. The company was founded in 1979 by Bill Rasmussen along with his son Scott Rasmussen and Ed Egan.
  ESPN broadcasts primarily from studio facilities located in Bristol, Connecticut. The network also operates offices in Miami, New York City, Seattle, Charlotte, and Los Angeles. James Pitaro currently serves as chairman of ESPN, a position he has held since March 5, 2018, following the resignation of John Skipper on December 18, 2017. While ESPN is one of the most successful sports networks, there has been much criticism of ESPN. This includes accusations of biased coverage, conflict of interest, and controversies with individual broadcasters and analysts.
  As of September 2018, ESPN is available to approximately 86 million television households in the United States.
  In addition to the flagship channel and its seven related channels in the United States, ESPN broadcasts in more than 200 countries. It operates regional channels in Australia, Brazil, Latin America, and the United Kingdom.
context_section_description: ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American multinational basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The company was founded in 1979 by Bill Rasmussen along with his son Scott Rasmussen and Ed Egan.
  ESPN broadcasts primarily from studio facilities located in Bristol, Connecticut. The network also operates offices in Miami, New York City, Seattle, Charlotte, and Los Angeles. James Pitaro currently serves as chairman of ESPN, a position he has held since March 5, 2018, following the resignation of John Skipper on December 18, 2017. While ESPN is one of the most successful sports networks, there has been much criticism of ESPN. This includes accusations of biased coverage, conflict of interest, and controversies with individual broadcasters and analysts.
  As of September 2018, ESPN is available to approximately 86 million television households (93.2% of households with pay television) in the United States.
  In addition to the flagship channel and its seven related channels in the United States, ESPN broadcasts in more than 200 countries. It operates regional channels in Australia, Brazil, Latin America, and the United Kingdom. In Canada, it owns a 20% interest in The Sports Network (TSN) and its five sister networks.
  In 2011, ESPN's history and rise was chronicled in Those Guys Have All the Fun. It is a nonfiction book written by James Andrew Miller and Tom Shales and published by Little, Brown and Company.
caption: ESPN headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut
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