ESPN in Asia and Japan
ESPN MEDIA ZONE
In November 1996, ESPN, Inc. entered into a 50:50 joint venture with STAR TV in Asia called ESPN STAR Sports (ESS). ESPN’s joint venture with STAR reaches 310 million viewers in Asia, through 17 networks covering 24 countries, each localized to deliver differentiated world-class premier sports programming to Asian viewers. Key programming includes English Premier League, UEFA Champions League, Formula One, Wimbledon, NBA, and Major League Baseball. ESS produces five local editions of SportsCenter, customized for viewers in India, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Southeast Asia.
ESS maintains three leading sports sites: espnstar.com (Asia), espnstar.com.tw (Taiwan), and espnstar.com.cn (China), which are offered in English, Taiwanese, and Mandarin, respectively. In 1998, the first Asian X Games Asia was held, taking place in Phuket Thailand and again at the same venue in 2001.From 2002-2004, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, was home to the Asian X Games. In 2005, the X Games made its South Korean debut in Seoul returning to Kuala Lumpur as X Games Asia in 2006.On 3-6 May 2006, X Games Asia were held for the first time in China, with Shanghai playing host to Asia’s most prestigious multi-event action sports competition.
ESPN merged its sports network in Japan – Sports-iESPN – with J SPORTS Broadcasting Corporation to form four new sports channels, including J Sports ESPN. The four channels have the largest sports television audience reach in Japan, approximately 6,550,000 households. ESPN delivers action sports content to fans across Japan via X Games Mobile, a service that includes official X Games news, information, wallpapers, and ringtones, as well as mobile video content from the X Games and Winter X Games.