HD Facts

Fact Sheet

ESPN HD Launch Date:

March 30, 2003

ESPN2 HD Launch Date:

January 5, 2005

ESPN HD and ESPN2 HD will deliver more than 1,000 events in high definition in 2008 including all of ESPN’s NASCAR coverage, NBA telecasts, MLS telecasts, MLB telecasts, college football telecasts, National Hot Rod Association races and coverage of NFL Monday Night Football. 100 percent of ESPN and ESPN2’s Bristol-based studio programming originates in high definition, including SportsCenter, NFL Countdown, NFL Monday Night Countdown, NFL Live, Baseball Tonight, Mike & Mike in the Morning and First Take.
The company will launch new high definition services in 2008: ESPNEWS HD (Mar. 30) and ESPNU HD (Aug. 28). By the end of the first quarter in 2008, Disney will have eight HD channels: ABC HD, ABC Family HD, The Disney Channel HD, Toon Disney HD, ESPN HD, ESPN2 HD, ESPNEWS HD.
ESPN's first HD telecast was March 30, 2003. (Sunday Night Baseball:Texas Rangers vs. Anaheim Angels)
ESPN HD telecast its' 2,000th live remote HD program on Sunday, Aug. 5, 2007. (Sunday Night Baseball: NY Mets at Chicago Cubs).
Currently, ESPN HD reaches more than 15 million subscribers and is available to more than 91 million homes while ESPN2 HD reaches almost 12 million subscribers and is available to approximately 80million homes.

ESPN has consistently increased the number of HD telecasts it produces since 2003.

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