The Agony of Defeat

Filed in archive Business Trends on August 11, 2006

I recall a breakfast when a highly placed executive at Time Warner speculated to me that someday one of the three major broadcast networks would go to 100% sports programming to combat DVR ad-skipping. The theory being that live events are usually watched live and, hence, there is no digital recording file to "skip" through.

My immediately thought was of ABC because Disney owns them and ESPN. Today, there was a report that the ABC Sports brand is being replaced with ESPN's.

ESPN viewers watching a promo for a sport program that airs on the ABC network will be directed to the ABC Television Network--with no mention of ABC Sports.

A major branding campaign, "ESPN on ABC," will extend ESPN, the large cable sports network, as the umbrella TV sports programming brand on the ABC Television Network. Now when viewers tune in on ABC, they will see ESPN's signature red-color themed graphic look -- including score updates and ESPN signage.

The only remaining ABC demarcation in a sports program will be the ABC Network watermark displayed in the lower right-hand-corner of the screen.