ESPN: Digital Rights Hail Mary

ESPN (DIS), the home of cable television staples like “Sports Center,” is seeking to ride the growth of digital media by negotiating for distribution rights on technologies that have yet to be invented, an executive said Tuesday.

Speaking at the Deutsche Bank Securities Media and Telecom Conference in New York City, George Bodenheimer, president of ESPN and ABC Sports, cited the NBA. The NBA’s championship series between the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics is airing on ABC, ESPN’s broadcast sister network under the Walt Disney corporate umbrella.

“We have the rights to utilize the NBA on technologies that haven’t been invented yet,” he said, adding that the arrangement lets ESPN rush to market when a new medium gains traction.

ESPN offers a sports menu across multiple cable channels, radio, the web and its print publication, ESPN the magazine. Competitors include Sports Illustrated (print and online), Fox (cable and online), regional sports channels, newspapers and web sites.

ESPN’s focus on digital content also prompted a web site redesign that is scheduled for launch in late summer or early fall, Mr. Bodenheimer said. One aim of the redesigned site: Let users access scores for their teams with fewer clicks.

“If you’re a student of ESPN, you should watch what we do with digital media,” he said. “Sports fans are looking for content in places other than television. In April, we had 140 million video views on ESPN.com,” a 40 percent year-over-year increase.

That doesn’t mean that all of ESPN’s digital initiatives have been unalloyed successes. In 2006, ESPN pulled the plug on Mobile ESPN, a sports-themed cellular phone service, after spending $80 million to acquire just 30,000 subscribers. In 2007, however, ESPN returned to the fray, cutting an exclusive deal to distribute sports content through Verizon Wireless’s V Cast service.

Though ESPN has secured a digital pipeline from the NBA and has a deal for limited digital rights from Major League Baseball, the NFL has been another story. ESPN has yet to secure NFL highlights, Mr. Bodenheimer acknowledged.

In a bid to ramp high schoolers onto the ESPN brand, in 2007 ESPN acquired SchoolSports, publisher of RISE magazine and RiseMag.com, he said.