Top ESPN talent descends on Bristol for media day

Greg Bordonaro ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro (right) talks with communications chief Josh Krulewitz at ESPN Media Day in Bristol.

Greg Bordonaro ESPN personalities talk on a panel discussion during media day in Bristol. (From far right) Pat McAfee, Mike Greenberg, Elle Duncan, Scott Van Pelt and Stephen A. Smith.

Greg Bordonaro ESPN’s Digital Center 2 in Bristol, which debuted in 2014.

Greg Bordonaro An ESPN sign inside the sports media giant’s Digital Center 2 in Bristol.

Greg Bordonaro Retired Philadelphia Eagles Center Jason Kelce will be joining ESPN's “Monday Night Countdown” this NFL season.

Greg Bordonaro | Hartford Business Journal Retired Alabama football coach Nick Saban has joined ESPN as an analyst on "College GameDay."

Greg Bordonaro The NFL Live studio inside ESPN’s Digital Center 2 in Bristol.

Write a Comment

By David Krechevsky

This was a first for ESPN.

For its 2024 media day on Wednesday, which attracted more than 50 print, radio, TV and online journalists from across the country, ESPN assembled five of its most notable show hosts. Each of them said it was the first time they’d been together at the sports broadcast giant’s headquarters in Bristol.

ESPN also used the event to highlight the success of its digital and social media content, and to break some news, including the signing of a new rights contract.

The gathering of “First Take” host Stephen A. Smith, nighttime “SportsCenter” host Scott Van Pelt, “SportsCenter” anchor Elle Duncan, “Get Up!” and new “NFL Sunday Countdown” host Mike Greenberg and analyst Pat McAfee, host of “The Pat McAfee Show” and a regular panelist on “College GameDay,” provided an opportunity for the news media to hear each of their takes on what they do and how they do it, and to ask questions.

It also provided McAfee, a former NFL punter whose controversial and freewheeling show began on YouTube before being picked up by ESPN a year ago, the opportunity to hit back at some news organizations for the way they describe him and what he does.

“I just think an image was painted of me through a lot of different mischaracterizations and misrepresentations of what our show is,” he said.

McAfee, who has been criticized for, among other things, giving NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers an open platform, claimed that some of the more controversial clips from his show have been used out of context.

In answer to a question, he also said his show has broken news but balked at saying he should follow “journalistic ethics.”

“I understand that you may have a lot of reasons to potentially hate me,” he said. “I think they’re misguided. I would appreciate it if you would give me and my guys a chance.”

The gathering of ESPN stars was the cap to a day filled with news announcements from the digital sports and entertainment company owned by Disney.

The daylong event opened with ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro answering questions from Josh Krulewitz, senior vice president for communications, before taking questions from the media.

Pitaro said ESPN, which celebrates its 45th anniversary next month, plans to offer its flagship programming on an as-yet unnamed direct-to-consumer digital streaming platform, that will be separate from but include its current ESPN+ digital offering, which shows some sports and non-live sports content.

“We are on track to launch this time next year,” he said.

The plan to roll out the streaming platform, at a price to be determined, is an acknowledgment that decades of once-lucrative revenue from being an anchor on cable TV services is ending.

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal in March, ESPN’s cable business has shrunk dramatically. Since 2011, the number of U.S. households paying for cable packages that include ESPN has fallen by about 29 million, the Journal reported.

Perhaps because of that, ESPN was quick to point out on Wednesday that, for the 29th consecutive month, ESPN Digital “topped the U.S. sports category in July with 102.3 million unique visitors, 33 million more than No. 2 Yahoo Sports-NBC Sports Network,” according to data released by Comscore.

What made that performance especially noteworthy was that ESPN was competing against NBC’s broadcast of the Summer Olympic Games from Paris in July.

During the media day event, ESPN also announced:

A new 12-year agreement with the U.S. Tennis Association (USTA) to keep the U.S. Open tennis tournament on ESPN through 2037.
The launch of “Where to Watch” on its ESPN app and ESPN.com, a guide for sports fans to find where to watch any sports event, regardless of the network or platform it is on.
That former New England Patriots Head Coach Bill Belichick will make multiple appearances on “The Pat McAfee Show” and appear on all 11 “Monday Night Football with Peyton and Eli” (Manning) alternate telecasts. Belichick will also launch a new, multiplatform show with Peyton Manning called “The Breakdown.”
A new “30 for 30” film called “The Sack Exchange,” about the legendary New York Jets defensive line of the 1980s.
That “First Take” with hosts Smith and Molly Qerim will produce three live shows from the campuses of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) this fall. The locations will be Howard University in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 20, Tennessee State University in Nashville on Oct. 11, and Morehouse College in Atlanta on Nov. 8.

During his presentation, Pitaro, who at age 54 has been ESPN chairman for six years, said the organization continues to work to integrate all of its various digital and social media offerings. He said its new gambling platform, ESPN BET, which is run by PENN Entertainment, is working on ways to connect with fantasy sports fans.

It also now has a “tile” on Hulu’s streaming services that immediately links to all of ESPN’s digital offerings, and will have a tile on Disney+ by the end of the year.

“We are at a really important time at ESPN,” he said. “An Incredibly important time.”