In the UK, ESPN features a multi-faceted, digital-first business. As a leading digital sports brand in the UK, ESPN operates online, mobile and broadband services that leverage its position as the world’s leading digital sports provider and one of the leading technology and content companies in the world. In addition to its digital business, ESPN operates a growing content syndication business and is home to part of ESPN’s award-winning global advertising sales and solutions team – delivering both local and global solutions to brands and marketers who want to connect to sports fans. An ESPN-branded television channel is also available in the UK and Ireland. Operated by BT Sport, it delivers a host of live and taped sports programming from the UK, Europe and around the world.

SNAPSHOT
• Unmatched digital sports portfolio: ESPN.co.uk, ESPNcricinfo, ESPN FC, ESPN Player, ESPN.com, Apps
• ESPN.co.uk: The UK’s Fastest Growing Multi-sports Site*
• Digital Video: 900% year-on-year growth in UK Digital video views – 2.1 million/month
• The most engaged mobile sports audience in the UK. The average user returns more often, spends more time and views more pages each day than any mobile sports brand in the market. (56 min/user – Aug ’13)**
• Award-winning advertising solutions for brands to reach and connect with engaged, passionate sports fans
• Growing TV content syndication business serving EMEA region; ESPN on BT Sport

SNAPSHOT
• FASTEST-GROWING MULTI-SPORT PORTAL IN THE UK
• DEPTH AND QUALITY OF CONTENT: 200-300 PIECES OF NEW CONTENT DAILY
• INNOVATIVE APP PUTS FANS IN CONTROL, LETS THEM CUSTOMISE THE NEWS FEED

Launched in 2010, ESPN.co.uk is one of the UK’s leading multi-sport portal destinations and is the fastes growing multi-sport site in the UK. It provides live scores and in-depth coverage across the range of UK sport, combining original news, analysis, audio and video from an experienced London-based news team with the most relevant news, insight and opinion from ESPN’s worldwide news organisation and sport-specific sites.

ESPN.co.uk provides UK fans with an enormous breadth and depth of content, with 200-300 new pieces of content per day. Comprehensive coverage of football, cricket, rugby and F1 is joined by dedicated sections for boxing, golf and tennis. In addition to news, the site features thought-provoking comment, features, video, photos, audio and both arcade and fantasy games. The site also delivers any fans of US sport ESPN’s industry-best coverage of sports from North America and provides coverage of the top stories in cycling, darts, snooker and athletics.

ESPN.co.uk is complimented by the innovative ESPN UK smartphone and tablet app. Launched in Aug. 2013 it is a first-of-its-kind sports app in the British mobile sports market. ESPN UK is a feed-based app that gives the fan control of their mobile sports news and information experience – allowing users to personalise their own news service and easily navigate and discover all the content most relevant to their interests. Available on iOS and Android devices, the new app pulls from ESPN’s unmatched range of content across its family of leading digital brands — ESPN.co.uk, ESPNcricinfo, ESPNFC, ESPN.com, ESPNF1, ESPNscrum — and delivers a consolidated, constant feed which each user can personalise.

SNAPSHOT
• #1 IN DIGITAL CRICKET SITE IN THE WORLD – ONLINE, MOBILE WEB, SMARTPHONE AND TABLET APPS
• THE MOST IN DEPTH COVERAGE OF THE SPORT – LIVE SCORES, NEWS, ANALYSIS, STATS, VIDEO
• 20 YEARS OF LEADERSHIP, UNMATCHED AUTHORITY AND VOICE IN THE SPORT

Celebrating 20 years of heritage in 2013, ESPNcricinfo is the world’s leading digital cricket brand and destination, and is among the top five most-visited single-sport digital brands in the world. Founded in 1993 and acquired by ESPN in 2007, ESPNcricinfo is available to cricket fans online and across mobile platforms – including Web, as well as tablet and smartphone apps.

Globally, ESPNcrcinfo leads its top competitors in unique visitors, page views, average minutes per visitor, and total visits. Despite that leading position, it continues to grow. Across online and mobile devices the ESPNcricinfo site and apps average more than 121 million visits per month. Fans to the site log hundreds of millions of minutes of time spent with the brand and millions of video views per month.

In the UK, ESPNcricinfo is the leading cricket brand across computers and mobile devices, with fans logging an average of nearly 30 million minutes per month with the brand – four times the amount of time fans spend with BBC Sport Cricket.* UK fans log an average of nearly three million visits per month to ESPNcricinfo from mobile devices alone – with growth in mobile usage continuing to grow quickly (double-digit percentages) year-on-year.

ESPNcricinfo’s content includes news, live ball-by-ball coverage of all Test and one-day international matches, and features written by some of the world’s top cricketers and cricket writers – as well as in-depth coverage of County Cricket. It also features Statsguru – an unmatched database of in-depth statistics on each of the 3000 international and 50,000 first-class cricketers to have played the game. It provides fans a dedicated line-up of original video, audio and arcade and fantasy cricket games, and integrated social media including Google+, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.

On mobile, ESPNcricinfo is the leading mobile cricket source – with mobile web and apps for smartphones and tablets. The ESPNcricinfo smartphone app on iOS and Android devices, is the most comprehensive cricket app available offering fans the depth and quality of cricket coverage, scores and incisive reportage that ESPNcricinfo is known and respected for, as well as features that allow fans to socialize the experience and personalize the interface for each individual user. The app caters to all types of cricket fans – from the most casual to the most passionate, as well as the highly social modern fans who want to share their experience. ESPNcricinfo offers fans a tablet application (iPad and Android devices) as well as Windows 8 multi-screen app.

SNAPSHOT
• GLOBAL FOOTBALL-SPECIFIC MULTIMEDIA BRAND – MOBILE, ONLINE, VIDEO, TV
• IN-DEPTH 24/7/365 COVERAGE OF FOOTBALL; GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE ON GLOBAL GAME
• RICH WITH VIDEO – TENS OF MILLIONS OF GLOBAL VIEWS MONTHLY

ESPN FC is the company’s global, multiplatform, multi-lingual football brand, and one of the world’s top online and mobile football-specific digital destinations year-round. Launched in 2012 (replacing ESPNsoccernet), ESPN FC has quickly grown – with millions of fans logging more than 400 million minutes and nearly 260 million page views monthly. ESPN FC also delivers top-quality digital video for fans, and has become one of the leading destinations for football video online – with nearly 40 million video views monthly, a nearly 10-fold increase year-on-year.

Covering the global game with a global perspective, the site features live scores and Gamecast, news, analysis, video, podcasts, blogs and more. The ESPN FC roster includes influential journalists delivering quality coverage from around the world of international football, including: Gabriele Marcotti, Roger Bennett, Raphael Honigstein, Rory Smith, John Crace, Iain Macintosh, James Horncastle, Jeff Carlisle, Fernando Duarte, Tim Vickery, John Brewin, John Duerden, Miguel Delaney, Andy Brassell and more. Additionally, the popular ESPN FC Blog Network has expanded to include 52 blogs covering tournaments, leagues, clubs, national teams, transfers, relegations, scouting, humor, fantasy, live game day chats and more from global contributors.

The multi-screen news and information programme ESPN FC (produced for ESPN digital media and TV networks around the world) looks each day at the global game and is hosted by ESPN’s Dan Thomas and Max Bretos. A top rotation of 23 football pundits and ESPN FC reporters from the United Kingdom, Germany, U.S., Mexico, Spain, Argentina and beyond, deliver the daily programme as well as regular digital-exclusive news updates, analysis, interviews, profiles of key personalities, previews of key matches and more.

SNAPSHOT
• LIVE AND ON-DEMAND SPORTS STREAMING SERVICE
• NCAA BASKETBALL & AMERICAN FOOTBALL, X GAMES, LE MANS, WSOP
• HIGH QUALITY VIDEO STREAMING; ONLINE, ON TABLETS, ON CONNECTED TV

ESPN Player is ESPN’s signature broadband service in the UK and across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, delivering exclusive premium sports content live and on-demand online, via tablet devices and through connected televisions. The service offers fans more than1500 live events and thousands of hours of live an on-demand sport, including NCAA (National College Athletic Association) basketball and American football, X Games, American Le Mans Series and the World Series of Poker. Subscriptions to ESPN Player are available for Daily, Monthly and Season Passes.

ESPN Player features high quality streaming video, with games streamed at up to 3.5mbps. ESPN Player also utilises adaptive streaming technology that dynamically adjusts to maximize video quality depending upon a user’s connection speed and various other factors.

ESPN Player puts the fan in full control of their broadband sports viewing experience – with the ability to pause and rewind live events and jump back to live action with a single click. Viewers can scroll to any part of the game they may have missed, review a great play or goal with the 10-second rewind button, or return the start of the game with a single click. Viewers can then rejoin the live action by clicking the live button.

TELEVISION
Content Distribution & Sales
ESPN is an established content provider and offers a diverse library of sports content for syndication to clients and partners around the world. The ESPN catalog includes NCAA Basketball and March Madness, NCAA Football including BCS Bowl games (and the forthcoming College Football Playoffs), NASCAR, IndyCar, X Games, World Series of Poker, Boxing, additional NCAA sports (baseball, lacrosse, softball, more) and ESPN Films including ESPN’s award-winning 30 for 30 documentary series and more.

ESPN in the BT Sport Bundle
In February 2013, ESPN reached an agreement to sell its UK and Ireland television channels to BT. Following that agreement an ESPN-branded channel is now owned and operated by BT Sport, under a brand licensing agreement.

* comScore MMX, Multi-Platform Universe, Jan – Jun 2013
** comScore GSMA, 12 Mth Avg. (Mar‘12-Jun ’13)