ESPN Announces ESPN HD

[Gregg Lengling]

09.26.02

Plans Significantly Bolster Affiliates' Efforts to Roll Out HDTV
Bristol, Conn. - ESPN President George Bodenheimer announced today "a new chapter in ESPN's history and the future of sports television," with plans to provide a high-definition simulcast service of its premier network ESPN to be laucned in April of 2003. ESPN HD will include in its first year 100 live telecasts - featuring Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association (NBA), the National Football League (NFL), and the National Hockey League (NHL) - produced and distributed in high-definition television (HDTV).

Telecast to be produced in high-definition television in 2003 and 2004 include:
-Select games from Major League Baseball, the NBA, the NFL, and the NHL
-A variety of ESPN Original Entertainment proprietary programming including the X Games, the world's premier action sports event, Great Outdoors Games programming and the ESPN Awards
- Live coleege championship events including the Women's Final Four and the ACC Men's Basketball Tournament.
In addition to the programming mentioned above, most studio shows, including SportsCenter, will be added in 2004 providing an additional 3,700 hours of originally produced HDTV programming.

[Matt Heebner]

The question is.......who? Who is going to be carrying ESPN HD? Cable? DirecTV? I would think that a major channel like ESPN would be carried by cable and satellite both, but mark my words, I will go with whomever provides the most HD!
Thanks Gregg, you probably have informed me more of whats going on than anywhere else I visit.
Matt