Exclusive Interview: ESPN’s George Bodenheimer

PREMIUM: George Bodenheimer, the president of ESPN and ABC Sports and co-chairman of Disney Media Networks, tells World Screen Newsflash about serving fans through a “best available screen” strategy.

Perhaps no one knows the ESPN fan better than George Bodenheimer. He joined the company after college, in 1981, as a driver for the mailroom, and has been there ever since. He moved up the ranks and in 1998 was named president. He was also appointed president of ABC Sports in 2003, and co-chairman of Disney Media Networks in 2004. Through the years he has witnessed first hand both advances in technology, which he has embraced, and made sure ESPN has kept pace with and changes in viewing habits. Regardless of the channel, platform or device, the goal is the same: serving the ESPN fan.

WS: ESPN’s mission has always been to serve its fans. How has this mission driven your “best available screen” strategy?
BODENHEIMER: It is a simple strategy: in order to fulfill our mission, we need to be where the fans are. New technology and innovation have enabled us to serve fans when they aren’t in front of their TVs, whether that’s on their computers, listening to their radios or using their mobile or tablet device. The added benefit is that these devices reach audiences in time periods when we previously could not reach fans, which in turn creates an additive audience for our content.

WS: How did you decide what to offer online, and what do your fans expect to find on the ESPN websites?
BODENHEIMER: Ultimately, what fans want drives us. ESPN has a long and rich history of providing accurate, up-to-the-minute sports news and information, as well as analysis and smart commentary, throughout the world. Whether it is ESPN.com, ESPNcricinfo, our local sites (like ESPNNewYork, ESPN.co.uk or ESPN.com.br), ESPNsoccernet or any of our other websites, that’s our core mandate. On top of that, we work to layer the best online library of sports video, podcasts, feature and investigative journalism, and a set of social tools and avenues that allow fans to share their passions and points of view with each other and with us. At the same time, we have to find ways to deliver on that in a way that allows us to build a successful and sustainable long-term business.

WS: How popular is streaming live sports on your websites?
BODENHEIMER: We stream thousands of live and on-demand sports events around the world, through broadband services in more than 50 countries under the ESPN3, WatchESPN, ESPN Player and ESPN Play brands. What we stream, and how many events, varies by market, but the principle is the same: serve underserved groups of fans that are passionate about sports, and use technology to deliver that in the best possible way. It’s an embodiment of the best available screen concept put into practice. In addition to that, we are the leading destination for ad-supported short-form sports video in the U.S., and likely in the world. On ESPN.com alone, we create about 70 pieces totaling 200 minutes of video a day. Video is a core part of what ESPN does. We’re leaders in multiplatform programming and we’ll continue to provide fans with more and more video across a number of screens, and we plan on maintaining that trend.

WS: Is online viewing in any way cannibalizing viewing on the linear channels?
BODENHEIMER: No. We do a lot of research about how sports fans consume content, and we see the entire pie—whether it is TV, online or mobile devices—growing. In fact, 2010 was ESPN’s highest-rated year, and ESPN.com had a record year as well. We have learned time and time again that cross-media usage is not a zero-sum game. A heavy user is a heavy user, and we continue to do our best to satiate them across screens.

WS: In what ways does ESPN offer such high value to cable and satellite operators? There is much talk of “cord cutting.” How real of a threat do you think this is?
BODENHEIMER: We are in the service business, whether it’s serving our fans or our affiliate partners. Sports is live, compelling, highly prized programming that is rarely time-shifted, which makes it valuable to our partners. As for cord cutting, it’s something we’re watching closely, but to date research has shown that it is a very limited phenomenon. We have found that, of the very small number of viewers who no longer have multichannel packages, most tend to do it for economic reasons, not because they are getting their video content from other sources.

WS: How are you serving fans on mobile devices?
BODENHEIMER: Very aggressively. We want to serve sports fans wherever they are, and we deliver our sports content to their mobile devices through the ESPN Mobile Web, text messages, audio, video and of course our mobile apps. In the U.S., we capture about 70 percent of the time spent with sports on mobile. Our ESPN ScoreCenter and ESPN Radio apps have been the number one free and paid sports apps on iTunes for more than a year. Our WatchESPN app in the U.S. allows fans to watch ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU and ESPN3 anywhere on their iPhone, iPad and Android devices through affiliated partners. In the U.K., ESPN is already the third-ranked sports destination on the mobile web, and ESPN Goals—which delivers all the goals from all 380 Barclays Premier League matches to smartphones—has been the top sports app, and among the top five free apps, consistently. ESPNcricinfo is the clear leader for cricket on the mobile web in India, and in Australia we just acquired a company, Extracorp, that operates the leading footy-tipping site on the web, and a leading app that pairs with it. So we’re establishing leadership in many places around the world all throughout the year, and we have many other mobile apps tied to specific sports and events—like the X Games, FIFA World Cup, college football bowl season, fantasy baseball and football—that enable fans to stay engaged with the sports they love.

WS: What is your strategy for making ESPN content available on third-party websites and platforms?
BODENHEIMER: As a general rule, we try to use our media to deliver our content, but we recognize that fans utilize many online and mobile platforms to keep up with their favorite teams and players, as well as engage their friends and fellow fans. So we have embraced things like Facebook Connect across many of our sites and services and we work with many innovative partners. For example, we have worked with YouTube to establish our own branded channel on that site because we know that fans look for our video content there. We were also the first company to have our own video player used on our YouTube channel. We are working with Google to create enhanced search results using microdata, which enables ESPN to provide fans with richer, more in-depth information whenever they use Google to look up data about a league, team or player. In addition, we’ve worked with new companies like Pulse, to optimize ESPN content for the iPad news reader.

WS: How are you using social-media sites to further your connection with fans?
BODENHEIMER: ESPN has been very active integrating Facebook, Twitter and YouTube into how we make our content available to fans. We’ve also created two social games for Facebook. Last September, we launched ESPN College Town, which immediately became the most popular sports social game on Facebook, and in July we launched ESPN Sports Bar, which reached 1 million players in its first month.

WS: ESPN has a huge international presence. What further growth do you see in international markets?
BODENHEIMER: We are looking to grow around the world in much the same way; localized content distributed through a plethora of technology and innovation.