ESPN Sweeps Media Categories at 2015 Sports Business Awards

• Takes Awards for Best in Digital Sports Media, Sports Television, Sports Media
• Since 2008 Introduction of Awards ESPN has Taken Home 14 Honors

Last night at the 2015 Sports Business Awards in New York, staged annually by Street & Smith’s Sports Business Journal, ESPN swept the three media-related awards categories, winning awards for Best in Sports Media, Best in Digital Sports and Best in Sports Television.

ESPN has now won 14 Sports Business Awards since they began in 2008 – five for Best in Digital Sports, four for Best in Sports Media, three for Best in Sports TV, one for Best in Sports Technology and one for Best Executive (George Bodenheimer).

Accepting the awards on behalf of ESPN’s nearly 7000 employees, John Wlidhack (Executive Vice President, Programming and Production), John Kosner (Executive Vice President, Digital & Print Media) and Burke Magnus (Executive Vice President, Programming and Scheduling) all touched upon the unique culture of hard work, passion and teamwork at ESPN.

Wildhack, accepting the award for Best in Sports Media, also noted that the combined products, content and work of the nominees for the award meant there had never been a better time to be a fan of sports. By many measures 2014 was indeed a remarkable year for ESPN, behind a combination of TV, digital, print, audio and radio platforms, an unrivaled portfolio of marquee sports rights, an array of ground-breaking distribution agreements, quality programming across more than 30 networks globally (including eight in the U.S.), award-winning journalism and technological leadership that included the opening of its landmark Digital Center 2 media production facility.

Magnus accepted the award for Best in Sports Television. Among the many milestones in 2014 for ESPN’s television business were the launch of the SEC Network, the record-setting inaugural College Football Playoff, a new long-term agreement with the NBA, Monday Night Football continuing as cable’s most-viewed program, the company’s standard-setting global coverage of the FIFA World Cup in Brazil, expansion and enhancement of SportsCenter, award-winning journalism from Outside The Lines and E:60, the 10^th anniversary of ESPN Deportes and more.

Kosner, accepting the award for Best in Digital Sports, spoke of how special it was to earn the award as the company marks the 20^th Anniversary of its flagship digital property, ESPN.com. In addition, 2014 marked the best year ever for ESPN digitally – and the best year ever recorded in the digital sports category. It finished 2014 with a the largest and most engaged sports audience in the U.S. and globally, the number one sports app (ESPN) on mobile devices, the most streamed sporting event ever (2014 FIFA World Cup), the number one fantasy football game, the continued growth of properties including ESPN W, FiveThirtyEight, ESPN FC, ESPNcricinfo and Grantland, industry-leading digital partnerships, sophisticated use of social media, and an unmatched team of journalists, developers, designers, and engineers.

ESPN also was nominated for Best in Technology and the SEC Network was nominated in Best in Sports Television. In addition, to the media awards, the inaugural College Football Playoff, which ESPN covered exclusively, won the award for Best Sports Event of the Year. Bill Hancock, the Executive Director of the College Football Playoff, accepted the award and thanked ESPN’s for its support of the event and excellent coverage.