ESPN Increases Spanish Coverage

There are lots of ways to say “Going, going gone!” in Spanish, but nobody else does it like Ernesto Jerez.

“Solido y en direccion al jardin!” (“It’s up and headed toward the outfield!”) “A la profundo!” (“It’s Deep!”) “Noooooooo! No, no, no, no, no, nooooo!” the ESPN commentator bellows whenever a ball clears the fence. “Diganle que NO a esa pelota!” (“Tell that ball it’s outta here!”)

ESPN has stepped up its Spanish-language programming to grab a bigger piece of the Latino audience across the United States and south of the border, from Tijuana to Tierra Del Fuego.

Its Latin America arm went on the air in 1989 and now features ESPN Dos for Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean and parts of South America; ESPN Brazil, and ESPN Mas in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay. The network’s “The Worldwide Leader in Sports” slogan translates to “El Lider Mundial en Deportes.”

“When it started, it was just a project to see how everyone was going to get used to American sports in Spanish,” said soccer announcer Luis Omar Tapia, a Chilean who joined the network in 1991. “It’s fun to hear somebody yell ‘GOOOOOOL!’ [goal] for 30 seconds. It’s more fun than hearing a flat broadcast where they talk about a ‘score.’ ”

The network is available in some form in 16 million homes in Latin America, where cable and satellite service is sometimes spotty. It even reaches an Argentine naval base that broadcasts to Antarctica.

The service provides NFL, NBA, NHL, NCAA and major league baseball coverage in Spanish, as well as top games from soccer leagues in Europe and Latin America, baseball from Mexico and the Caribbean, and South American rugby and polo. Viewers also get tennis, bowling, golf, horse racing, yachting, volleyball, pool, poker, auto racing and extreme sports, much of it from the United States, but all with Spanish commentators.

ESPN films its flagship “SportsCenter” live, several times a night, in Brazil, Argentina and, most recently, Mexico, where in January 2004 it opened a studio in Tlalnepantla, just north of the capital.

Also produced here is the soccer program “Futbol Picante” (“Spicy Soccer”) and portions of the boxing show “Noches del Combate” (“Nights of Combat”) as well as the racing roundup “RPM Semanal” (“RPM Weekly”).

“It’s not just about the language,” said Fernando Palomo, a Salvadoran anchor for “SportsCenter” in Mexico. “What we have to do is demonstrate a passion for sports that one would find in one particular corner of Latin America and communicate it all over.”

While shows produced in Mexico air throughout Latin America, their target audience is viewers of “ESPN Deportes,” a 24-hour Spanish-language network in the United States that went on the air in January 2004.

Only a few more than 1 million U.S. homes receive ESPN Deportes. The original ESPN and ESPN2 both are available in more than 88 times that many homes.

On March 16, “ESPN The Magazine” announced it would team up with Mexico City-based Editoriales Televisa to produce a Spanish version of the publication for U.S. readers that also will be called “ESPN Deportes.”

The network also plans to launch a wireless service providing scores and updates to subscribing Mexican cell phone users in coming weeks, said Jodi Markley, ESPN’s senior vice president for international production. And there have been discussions about building ESPN studios elsewhere in Latin America.

Markley said ESPN has hired anchors and commentators from 20 Latin American countries, and that most of those in front of the camera attend speech and language classes to learn how to neutralize their accents and limit use of regional slang in order to appeal to a larger audience.