ESPN is an American sports cable television channel. Initially, it was called the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, but already in 1985, 6 years after its founding, it shortened the name to a simpler version.
To date, the rights to the ESPN channel are owned by the American commercial television network ABC Inc., which, in turn, is part of The Walt Disney Company, and media corporation Hearst Corporation. The shares of each of the companies are 80 and 20%, respectively.
The date ESPN first began broadcasting is September 7, 1979. For the next 35 years, it broadcast live and recorded sports, as well as sports news and sports-oriented talk shows.
Nevertheless, the channel has always paid special attention to the broadcast of boxing matches, the organizer of which is often itself. In order to somehow stand out from its more popular competitors - HBO and Showtime - ESPN is forced to give preference to secondary boxing matches, in which either beginners or boxers at the end of their career take part.
The most popular boxing fights organized by ESPN are the fights between Calvin Brock and Jameel McCline, as well as between Ray Austin and Sultan Ibragimov.
The current channel manager is George Bodenheimer. ESPN is headquartered in Bristol, Connecticut.