BOSTON – ESPN has confirmed that it plans to enter the hypercompetitive New England sports media fray next month with the launch of a Web site devoted exclusively to local teams.
The new site is part of a plan by Walt Disney Co.-owned ESPN to expand its already vast network of television stations and Web sites into local markets. The company announced last month that after a trial run in Chicago it would begin expanding the local network.
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ESPN Boston is scheduled to debut on Sept. 14 – the day of the New England Patriots’ season opener against the Buffalo Bills, The Boston Globe reported today.
The arrival of ESPN in the Boston area will mean new competition from a well-known brand on Red Sox, Patriots and other sports coverage for the region’s established media outlets, from The Boston Globe and The Providence Journal to television and radio stations like WEEI and WBZ-TV.
ESPN Chicago has quickly surpassed the long-established sports sites of The Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times, becoming that city’s top sports site less than three months after its April launch, according to The New York Times.
“Adding Boston to ESPN’s local-sites network is a natural fit for our goal of serving sports fans,” Jim Pastor, senior vice president for ESPN business divisions, told The Globe today. “It is one of the nation’s premier sports towns and home to one of the strongest and most passionate fan bases in the world.”
ESPN has already hired Mike Reiss, The Globe’s prolific and popular Patriots beat writer, for the new site, and the company is said to be pursuing other Globe writers, as well.
