Hey, Get Your Programs Here, Here and Here

With so many sporting events and so much commentary on television--ESPN, ESPN2, the Golf Channel, the Outdoor Network, regional sports networks and big-ticket events on the broadcast networks--you’d think even the most dedicated, die-hard sports fan would have his or her fill.

But powerful companies in sports and news--ESPN, CNN and Sports Illustrated magazine--are betting that sports fans are gourmands, not gourmets, when it comes to news about their passionate pastimes. Today, ESPN is launching a new cable network, ESPNews, which will be devoted to sports news. On Dec. 12, CNN and Sports Illustrated will join forces to launch their new sports news network, CNN/SI.

ESPNews is aimed at viewers who want lots of game highlights and quick access to scores. The new network will feature 30-minute sports newscasts, based on the popular “SportsCenter” show on ESPN. The newscasts will feature highlights and continuously updated scores, with a score “ticker” crawling across the screen like Wall Street stocks.

ESPNews is viewed by top management as a “brand extension” of the ESPN name and coverage. (At least in the beginning, the network will not be live until 10 a.m. Pacific time.)

But although ESPNews will use much of the same game footage as ESPN and ESPN2, executives there maintain that there is an appetite for the new network.

“We’ve done focus-group research with sports fans, and they’ve said that they would spend additional sports-viewing time with a channel that gives them highlights and immediate access to sports scores,” said Steve Bornstein, president of ESPN and president of the sports division at ABC, which owns ESPN.

“We don’t expect ESPNews to get ratings the size of ESPN or ESPN2. But we think it will be a service a number of sports enthusiasts will want.”

ESPNews will cover live, breaking news and other sports stories, but there will be a lot of recycling throughout the day. “There will be repetition,” ESPN editor John Walsh said, “but there are a lot of different games to cover, and we don’t expect viewers to watch the channel for hours at a time. . . . At night, we’ll use as much live footage from in-process games as possible.”

There will be live shows from 10-10:30 a.m. and from 1-1:30 p.m., with live updates as needed through the day. ESPN’s “SportsCenter” will be repeated at 4:30. Programming will be live from 5:30 until about 11 p.m., or until the final game of the day is completed. When programming is live, highlights will be updated frequently.

The evening broadcast will be repeated, with possible updates, until live broadcasting begins the next day at 10 a.m.

The success of ESPN, which reaches 70 million subscribers and is one of the most profitable networks in cable television, has not been lost on another cable giant, CNN, and its new parent company, Time Warner. CNN/SI is the first venture combining properties between Time Warner (which owns Sports Illustrated) and Ted Turner’s CNN, recently bought by Time Warner.

In addition to these new networks, Fox Broadcasting today is launching Fox Sports Net, renaming an existing group of regional sports networks, including Prime Sports, and adding a new nightly news show that will include reports from regional sportscasters.

What’s behind this boom in sports news? Leveraging assets and going after advertising dollars in a TV mini-industry that is making a huge amount of money.

“ESPN’s competitors have seen how much money ESPN is making,” said John Mansell, senior analyst with Paul Kagan Associates, which analyzes cable-industry companies.

According to Mansell, the Kagan firm estimates that ad revenue for ESPN in 1996 will be a whopping $479 million. ESPN2, which began in 1993 and features more “fringe” sports events, will have revenues of $30 million this year.

And ad revenues for regional sports networks are increasing at an even faster rate, Mansell said, to $249 million in 1996.

“Advertisers are willing to pay a premium to reach sports viewers,” Mansell said.

CNN/SI executives say they are aiming to make their mark with strong reporting on the sports industry. “We’ll use highlights within the day, but we’re not going to be a highlights channel,” said Jim Walton, executive in charge of CNN/SI. “We think our strength is in the journalists we have at CNN and Sports Illustrated.”

CNN/SI has hired a former ESPN producer, Jean McCormick, as executive producer of CNN Sports and CNN/SI. McCormick, 36, was coordinating producer on ESPN’s documentary series “Outside the Lines,” which won Emmy awards for reporting on topics such as sexual abuse in coaching and AIDS in boxing.

McCormick says that CNN/SI will go after those kinds of investigative stories--plus others that are simply interesting. “We’re going to be dedicated to breaking and advancing stories on every sports beat,” McCormick said. “We’ve got great writers at Sports Illustrated who are always uncovering news on their beats, and we’ll have our own anchors and reporters in addition to being able to use the resources of CNN and CNN Sports.”

Time Warner (which includes Time magazine, People magazine and other magazines along with Sports Illustrated) has already done some TV specials with CNN and broadcast networks. But plans for a five-day-a-week syndicated TV version of People magazine with the Walt Disney Co. were scuttled some years ago in part because of editors’ fears of “cannibalizing” the magazine.

This time, executives say, the two entities are part of the same company--and enthusiastic about working together. (During a recent visit to the still-under-construction New York set for CNN/SI in the Sports Illustrated offices, a staffer jokingly offered to pose for his close-up.) “Some editors and executives at SI and CNN have concerns about the time involved [in working for the new venture],” one executive acknowledged, “but the agreement we have is that we’ll do nothing to hurt the mother ship [of CNN or Sports Illustrated].” Steve Robinson, a former editor at Sports Illustrated, has been hired as managing editor of the TV network to help coordinate editorial efforts from the channel’s headquarters in Atlanta.

The new network is hiring 118 new staffers and building a 26,000-square-foot facility in Atlanta. Fred Hickman and Nick Charles, co-anchors of CNN’s “Sports Tonight,” will be anchors on the new channel, and others are being hired. Sports Illustrated reporters will be used in “de-briefs” from the field and the New York set, and some--such as golf writer Jaime Diaz--have already been signed up as regular contributors.

With this ambitious agenda, of course, nobody knows for sure whether sports fans actually want a network that emphasizes sports journalism. “I was a researcher on ‘Nightline’ when it started, and people didn’t know they needed that show till they saw it,” McCormick said. “There are a lot of interesting sports stories out there that aren’t being covered, and I think viewers will want to see them if we do this right.”

ESPNews will be produced at ESPN’s headquarters in Bristol, Conn., with 75 new production staffers in addition to those already working on ESPN and ESPN2. The new channel will be cross-promoted on ESPN’s other networks, and “SportsCenter” will be repeated an hour later on ESPN News.

With crowded channel capacity on local cable systems today, the new networks may be seen by relatively few viewers in the beginning.

ESPNews is launching with only 1.5 million available households, including some on home satellite networks, although marketing chief George Bodenheimer said he expects to announce carriage on other cable systems in the next few weeks.

CNN/SI has not announced its initial subscriber base. But, despite new channels backed up like planes over a crowded airport, CNN/SI is expected to get carriage on at least some of the cable systems owned by Time Warner. (Time Warner is one of the nation’s largest cable-system operators.)

Both services are counting on the expansion of cable-channel capacity in the future--and the potential for advertising revenue in cable sports. “The big growth in cable sports has already been made by ESPN,” Mansell said. “But, with expanded channels, I see no reason why other niche services can’t survive and flourish as well.”

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Around the Clock

Facts about the two 24-hour sports news channels that are being launched over the next six weeks:

ESPNEWS

* Launch Date: Today

* Base: Bristol, Conn.

* Distribution: More than 1.5 million initially.

* Owner: ESPN Inc., which is 80% owned by the Walt Disney Co.

* Other cable services: ESPN and ESPN2.

CNN/SI

* Launch date: Dec. 12

* Base: Atlanta

* Distribution: Undisclosed, but estimated at 3 million to 6 million initially by industry sources.

* Owner: Time Warner Inc., which owns Cable News Network and Sports Illustrated magazine.

* Other cable services: CNN, Headline News, HBO, WTBS Superstation, TNT, The Cartoon Network, CNNfn.

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* BY ANY NAME

Prime Sports becomes Fox Sports West starting today. C4