ESPN vs Fox Sports | Fox Strikes Back | 4

Business Wars

Wondery

History, Business, David Brown, Management

4.6 • 13.2K Ratings

🗓️ 16 February 2022

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

It’s 2005 and new ESPN programming chief John Skipper’s out to cement the brand’s market dominance by buying up more sports rights.

With ESPN spending big, Fox Sports will need more than its broadcast network and Fox Sports Net regional channels to stay in contention. It needs its own 24-hour national sports network.

And that means that after years of shadow boxing, Fox Sports and ESPN are about to get in the ring and go head to head for the first time.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, Prime members, you can listen to Business Wars Add Free on Amazon Music.
0:04.6	Download the app today.
0:06.8	Starting this season with ESPN vs. Fox Sports, Business Wars is bringing you new, longer episodes
0:13.4	every Wednesday.
0:14.7	You can look forward to even more inside stories on the most scandalous, outrageous, and intense
0:19.2	corporate rivalries of all time.
0:31.6	August 2005, Long Island Sound off the Connecticut coast.
0:36.8	On his small fishing boat, ESPN President George Bowdenheimer opens a cooler, pulls out two
0:42.8	beer cans, and passes one to John Skipper.
0:46.7	Cheers.
0:47.7	Cheers.
0:48.7	Skipper is Bowdenheimer's newest fishing buddy.
0:52.8	He's a 49-year-old southerner with a gray buzz cut and the head of ad sales for ESPN's
0:58.6	web, print, and radio operations.
1:01.7	But he's not here to catch fish.
1:03.5	He's here to land a promotion.
1:06.3	ESPN Programming Chief Mark Shapiro resigned two days ago to take a new job, and Skipper
1:13.5	wants his old one.
1:15.5	He gets right to the point.
1:17.2	George, I want you to consider me for the Programming Chief job.
1:21.7	Bowdenheimer is surprised.
1:23.9	Skipper's got little experience in producing TV shows.
	...

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