ESPN: Bill Rasmussen's Satellite Dish Ban to the NFL's 10% Equity Stake

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In May 1978 Bill Rasmussen and his son Scott were fired from the World Hockey Association's New England Whalers. They rented an office in Plainville, Connecticut to plan a sports network, but local zoning banned satellite dishes, so they bought land in Bristol. In February 1979 Getty Oil bought 85% of the company, and Anheuser-Busch committed $1 million in advertising. ESPN launched on September 7, 1979 with SportsCenter, reaching 1.4 million cable subscribers. With little money for major rights, it hired Dick Vitale after his firing by the Detroit Pistons, added Chris Berman, and in April 1980 televised the NFL draft, turning a clipboard meeting into an event.

Getty's frugality cost ESPN NHL and college football rights, until ABC bought the whole company in 1984, followed by Capital Cities in 1985 and Disney in 1996. The 1984 Supreme Court ruling in NCAA v. Board of Regents ended the NCAA's control of football broadcasts, and ESPN filled weekends with college games. In 1987 it began Sunday night NFL games and hired Lee Corso for College GameDay. Carriage fees from cable bundles funded ESPN Radio, ESPN2, the BottomLine ticker and ESPN News, but cord cutting cost about 10 million viewers and led to layoffs in April 2017. In 2024 ESPN returned 37 Emmys after submitting fake names, and a deal finalized in early 2026 gave the NFL a 10% stake in exchange for NFL Network and RedZone.

• ESPN's documentary unit won an Oscar in 2017 for O.J.: Made in America.
• An October 2019 memo told staff to avoid political discussion after Daryl Morey's tweet about China and Hong Kong.
• ESPN Bet launched in late 2023 with Penn Entertainment and shifted to DraftKings in late 2025.
• In September 2026 ESPN removed the BottomLine ticker from college football broadcasts.
• Bill Rasmussen, pushed out after the ABC purchase, died in August 2026 at 93, months after a documentary on ESPN's founding premiered.