Top 100 momentsNo. 48
ESPN signs on
A cable channel in Bristol promises sports all day. Highlights, debate, and the idea that sport is a 24-hour product all start in a small studio.
September 1979. ESPN goes on the air from Bristol, Connecticut, with a lot of Australian rules football and a lot of nerve. Cable is still a novelty. Twenty-four hours of sports is a punchline until it is a habit.
SportsCenter teaches a generation to watch highlights as the game. Debate shows teach them to argue as the game. Rights fees go up because there is always another hour to fill. Leagues that had sold weekends sell their leftovers.
The internet will eat some of this. The template remains: sport as a continuous feed, not a ticket stub. Bristol built the feed.