Burke Magnus continues rising up the ranks at ESPN. Chairman Jimmy Pitaro announced Magnus’s promotion from Executive Vice President of Programming & Original Content to President of Programming & Original Content.
Magnus will continue reporting directly to Pitaro in the expanded role. ESPN is famous for its original programming and sports media rights deals. All of which Magnus will continue overseeing, along with more oversight on ESPN and ESPN+ original content development.
“Burke is a talented leader and collaborative colleague who has been instrumental in guiding ESPN through what has undoubtedly been one of the most challenging and critical periods in our history,” Pitaro said in a press release announcing the promotion. “He is an industry-leading programming strategist who continues to take on new challenges with his signature combination of relationship building and creativity.”
Recent rights deals with the NFL, MLB, NHL, SEC, and La Liga have had a big influence from the executive. He has also been an integral figure in the return of sports during the pandemic. Magnus has now been promoted twice in the past year after moving up to the vice president role last November. Two jobs a quarter century in the making.
Magnus joined ESPN in 1995 as a program associate and moved his way up through different programming departments to his position today. His big jump happened from 2004 to 2008 when he ran ESPNU. Magnus guided all programming, production, and operations exquisitely. College basketball ratings increased and the run brought about lasting ideas like the basketball version of “College Gameday” and Bracket Buster Saturday.
Magnus has been named to the “CableFax100”, which salutes the industry’s top power players and movers, every year since 2018. Magnus graduated from Holy Cross in 1988. He then earned his master’s degree in sport management from the University of Massachusetts in 1994 before starting at ESPN.