Season 4, Episode 1: ESPN
Acquired
00:00
What Happened to ESPN?
In 1982, the Getty family sells a 10% stake in ESPN to ABC to help offset some of these losses. They're at a point where they're burning $8 million a month in 1982 and Getty three years after they start buying. Now, that was a pretty bad move. Because right around that time ESPN comes up with a third super critical innovation for cable. So now ESPN has DNA from NBC, ABC and CBS, all in the executive ranks. And then, you know, ESPN has definitely had some for as much as they've sort of bet correctly and created waves. What happened? I think this is right.
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