ESPN chief pushing multiple platforms

Television is still the big growth driver, but ESPN President George Bodenheimer told the Deutsche Bank 2008 Media and Telecommunications Conference that his company is focused on integrated marketing for its advertising partners. If they want to be affiliated with the ESPN brand, he asked, “why just buy television,” noting that ESPN also has strong brands in radio, online and in other new media platforms. Saying he was bullish on the Disney-owned company’s growth, Bodenheimer said “we’re peddling as fast as we can on every business that serves sports fans.”

Sister network ABC has wrapped up its successful upfront and, while he didn’t offer any revenue predictions for ESPN, Bodenheimer said the ABC success with advertisers in the upfront “bodes well for us.”

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