ESPN is shuttering ESPN Classic after a two-decade run, following in the footsteps of NBC shutting down its cable sports channel. According to John Ourand of the Sports Business Journal, the channel is going dark on Jan. 1, 2022.
ESPN purchased the channel from Brian Bedol and Steve Greenberg in 1997. The network utilized the platform to show old game broadcasts and famously aired SportCentury on ESPN Classic. When ESPN bought the channel, it was known as Channel Sports Network.
One of the original minds behind the idea chimed in on its shut down on Twitter.
“It was an amazing team effort from a bunch of people who had no idea what we were doing!” Channel Sports Network founder Brian Bedol tweeted. “It was a great time in all of our careers, and a testament to how the industry has changed. Ultimately, Classic paved the way for the non-ESPN league-owned sports networks. Long live Classic.”
NBCUniversal is also shutting down NBCSports Network at the end of this year as the two broadcast powers pivot in different directions. Ourand noted that, “ESPN has been deemphasizing ESPN Classic for much of the past decade, allowing distributors to drop or put the channel on a tier to make room for college channels like SEC Network, ACC Network, and Longhorn Network.”
DirecTV and DISH Network have only offered the channel as a VOD option since 2014 as the writing on the wall became more clear each year. The move makes plenty of sense from an overhead perspective. We have fully entered the streaming age and all of ESPN’s classic broadcasts over the years would be even more accessible through streaming than they’d be on ESPN Classic.
After going on the air as Channel Sports Network in 1995, ESPN Classic is closing up shop, with plenty of channel-surfing memories left behind.