ABC O&Os Add ESPN to Web Sites

ABC’s 10 owned-and-operated stations to run short-form video through embedded ESPN player.

By Michael Malone -- Broadcasting & Cable, 7/15/2008 11:17:00 AM

ABC’s 10 owned-and-operated stations added ESPN video, in the form of “game highlights, sports news and clips,” to their Web sites.

The stations run the short-form video through an embedded ESPN player.

“The addition of world-class ESPN video content gives visitors to our local-station Web sites another compelling reason to log on for the best in multimedia news, weather, entertainment and, now, sports,” ABC Stations executive vice president of digital media Bill Burton said. “The ESPN video player is a perfect addition to our local online sports content available at each of the [station] Web sites.”

ABC’s owned stations include WABC New York, WPVI Philadelphia, KABC Los Angeles and WLS Chicago. The stations, of course, share a corporate parent in Disney with ESPN.

The “Sports” section of the station Web sites offer the user an ESPN widget on the bottom half of the screen, below the regional sports news. On this particular day, the box features the top two stories in the major sports, the day’s top sports headlines and links to every National Football League team’s ESPN homepage.