ESPN: 2011 Is Year of QB

But First, Sports Programmer Will Focus on Futbol

By Mike Reynolds -- Multichannel News, 5/24/2010 12:01:00 AM

New York — ESPN declared to advertisers at its upfront presentation last week that 2011 will be the “Year of the Quarterback.”

Spanning the run of 2011, ESPN will analyze sports’ most critical position across all of its vehicles, examining QB myths and legends and delving into the physical, mental and leadership attributes necessary to succeed. ESPN on-air talent and former National Football League QBs Steve Young, Trent Dilfer, Ron Jaworski and Kirk Herbstreit, among others, will afford their views.

More imminently, futbol will hold center stage across ESPN properties in the form of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, from South Africa. The programmer’s multiplatform presentation of the June 11-July 11 event includes 25 three-dimensional matches on the soon-tolaunch ESPN 3D, a network that now counts DirecTV and Comcast as affiliates.

Host nation South Africa vs. Mexico leads off 18 matches over 17 consecutive days, including United States vs. Slovenia on June 18 and Portugal vs. Brazil on June 25.

Three of the quarterfinals, the semis, the third-place match and the final will be available in 3D.

ESPN officials also talked up new shows on ESPN Deportes and ESPNU, as well as upcoming entries into social gaming and the release of new iPhone apps.

College-sports network ESPNU, which added a gaudy 50 million homes over the past year (to 73 million), is bowing in spring 2011 U-Nite, a daily show at midnight that will “cheer, debate and celebrate” anything of interest to viewers across the realms of sports and pop culture, including gaming, music and technology.

Spanish-language ESPN Deportes will launch Nacion ESPN, its version of the faninteraction- friendly SportsNation, in firstquarter 2011. It will emanate from the company’s Los Angeles studios.

ESPN Interactive’s two-year deal with social-gaming firm Playdom will generate ESPN-branded sports games for their respective sites plus social-media platforms, including Facebook, MySpace and Bebo. Two are in the works and are set to premiere come fall.

“The sports genre for this category of games has gone virtually untapped thus far,” Raphael Poplock, vice president of games and revenue strategy and development for ESPN Digital Media, said at the upfront. “And through this agreement, we have an opportunity to be in front of a highly engaged audience and at the forefront of what is currently the fastest-growing games category out there.”

ESPN is expanding its mobile base with six local-based iPhone and iPod touch applications — five tied to scores and breaking news about hometown squads in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston and Dallas. A sixth, ESPN Passport, will launch in the next month and let fans chronicle at-game experiences via digital scrapbook functions, such as photo uploads, commentary and virtual ticket stubs. Fans also will be able to check in and confirm their game attendance via GPS.