ESPN Deportes Presents New Initiatives and Focus for 2014-2015

NEW YORK, May 14, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- ESPN Deportes puts major focus on live sports events beyond the World Cup during its Upfront presentation, which took place this morning in New York City. Over the next year, the leading Spanish-language sports brand will present the most comprehensive offering of live sports available on all U.S. Spanish-language media, including the 2015 Pan American Games, Euro Qualifiers and American sports. During the presentation, the brand also reinforced ESPN's total market approach to highlight the company's reach and content options available to better serve Hispanic sports fans and advertisers across both languages, further supported by ESPN Deportes' unique multimedia positioning in the marketplace.

Live Sports Programming
Live sports events in both English and Spanish continue to lead as the most-watched and highest-rated live events on television among the more than 35 million Hispanic sports fans. It is ESPN's total market grasp and unique content options that continue to promote ESPN and ESPN Deportes growth.   

In 2015, ESPN Deportes will deliver the most diverse and complete offering of live sports events available on Spanish-language media with more than 1,000 live events scheduled across ESPN Deportes Television, ESPN Deportes Radio and ESPN Deportes+, the brand's broadband channel available via ESPNDeportes.com and ESPN3.

The programming lineup is highlighted by the return of the Pan American Games in 2015 and the Road to the UEFA Euro 2016. In addition, the network will continue presenting coverage of all major sports followed by Hispanics – Liga MX, European and International soccer, NBA, NFL, MLB, college football, boxing, MMA and extreme sports.

ESPN Deportes' soccer offerings include more than 124 Liga MX & Copa MX matches, 50+ UEFA Europa League matches, 30+ Brazilian league matches- Brasileiro, and 40 MLS games – new agreement.

American Sports on the Rise
During the presentation, ESPN Deportes highlighted the continued and significant growth of American sports among Hispanics. Coming off the most-watched Monday Night Football, MLB (2013), and NBA regular season ever this year, the network will continue presenting unparalleled, multimedia coverage of these sports, including: the exclusive Spanish-language telecast of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals and The Finals; more than 85 MLB regular season games scheduled this season; 19 Monday Night Football games starting August; and for the first time ever, a NFL Wild Card playoff game. For the third consecutive year, ESPN Deportes will exclusively telecast the College Football Championship Game. The network will present coverage of the College Football Playoff which includes the semifinal matchups along with the Championship.

Pan American Games
Following the success of the XVI Pan American Games Guadalajara 2011, ESPN Deportes, ESPN and ESPN2 will provide exclusive, multimedia coverage of the XVII Pan American Games Toronto 2015 in English and Spanish. The networks plan to dedicate over 150 hours of Olympic-type coverage around the event.

Considered the Olympics of the Americas, the event will take place July 10-26, featuring 36 Summer Olympic sports, such as soccer, boxing, swimming, gymnastics, volleyball, cycling, judo, etc.  More than 6,000 athletes, representing 41 nations from the Americas, are expected to compete in Toronto. This is the third time that Canada hosts the event, and the first held in the providence of Ontario. 

In 2011, ESPN Deportes' 125 hours of live coverage of the Pan American Game from Guadalajara delivered the highest ratings across all Spanish-language cable networks through the 17 days of the tournament. The ESPN Deportes telecasts, in addition to ESPN2's coverage of select events, reached 19 million viewers.

UEFA EURO 2016 Qualifiers
In anticipation of the 2016 UEFA European Championship (Euro), ESPN Deportes plans to present live coverage of more than 60 qualifying matches starting September 2014. Considered the second most important competition among national teams after the FIFA World Cup, the UEFA Euro brings to competition the best European nations, following the one-year qualification process. ESPN Deportes will cover this qualifying process, offering live matches across ESPN Deportes TV, ESPN Deportes+ and ESPN Deportes Radio, complemented with comprehensive news and information coverage across all platforms.

The qualifiers are scheduled to be played September 2014 through November 2015 to determine the 23 teams to join France, who qualified automatically as the host of the championship. The qualifiers will feature some of the most recognized soccer teams including Spain, Germany, Holland, Portugal and Italy.

Studio Expansion
ESPN Deportes was recently presented with two Emmy® Awards for Nacion ESPN and SportsCenter for Best Studio Shows, becoming the first and only Spanish-language cable network to gain this recognition. In an effort to continue delivering superior studio programming, ESPN Deportes will soon debut a new look and top-notch technology with the expansion of ESPN's studios in Mexico City.

Set to open in January 2015, the new facility will include four new HD studios along with four control rooms with state of the art technology and ten editing suites. With the debut of the new facilities, ESPN Deportes' Emmy® award-winning Sportscenter will have a new look and feel with an innovated production that includes new animations, graphics and creative visual presentation. The space will occupy new offices and studios in an area of more than 60,000 square feet.

In addition, Nacion ESPN, the interactive sports and entertainment news show produced from ESPN's studios in Los Angeles will expand to weekends starting this fall. Hosted by Adriana Monsalve, the weekend edition will recap the best of the week.

Original Content
Brothers in Exile
Set to premiere this Fall, Brothers In Exile tells the story of Orlando and Livan Hernandez, their rise to baseball stardom in Cuba, the harrowing escape from the island in the midst of the Cuban economic crisis of the 1990s, and the improbable circumstances that reunited them years later as Major League Baseball World Series champions. The film will be produced by Major League Baseball Productions, in conjunction with director Mario Diaz and producer Castor Fernandez. "Brothers in Exile" marks the third collaboration for Mario Diaz and producer Castor Fernandez. Castor's previous work has included "The Clemente Effect" (ESPN Deportes), "Carlin Isles: Fastest Man in Rugby" (Grantland), and "Plastic Paradise" (PBS).

ESPN Deportes La Revista
In an effort to continue growing the multimedia offerings of the brand, ESPN Deportes has teamed up with impreMedia, one of the leading Hispanic news and information companies in the U.S., to publish and expand ESPN Deportes La Revista- the only Spanish-language sports magazine in the U.S. With four issues already published, including a World Cup-focused special edition that will be available starting June 1st, the magazine's circulation has grown threefold to 250,000.  The magazine is now being distributed in the top Hispanic DMAs through a matrix distribution that includes single copy sales/newsstands and newspaper delivery.  A BPA circulation audit is scheduled for release in early June.  With the successful re-launch, the 2015 frequency is slated to increase to 6x a year.  

SOURCE ESPN Deportes