ESPN Expands its Global Online Business with Leading Motor Racing website
LONDON, Aug. 5 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- ESPN today announced the acquisition of Racing-Live.com - the world’s leading independent motor racing website.
Racing-Live.com covers Formula 1 (F1-Live.com), Moto GP & Superbike (Moto-Live.com), Rally (Rally-Live.com), off road Rallies (Raid-Live.com), Endurance Sports-Cars and Kart racing. The site provides fans around the world locally tailored up-to-the-minute news and information in English, French, Japanese, Italian, German and Spanish. Racing-Live.com has earned a loyal following of three million unique users per month.
“Motor racing has a global fan base, and this agreement will allow us to serve fans more motor sports coverage than ever before,” said Russell Wolff, Executive Vice President and Managing Director, ESPN International. “We continue to build our online business through key acquisitions like Cricinfo.com and Scrum.com while expanding our current offerings including fantasy and localized versions of ESPNsoccernet.com. Serving sports fans online is priority for us and this acquisition complements our extensive NASCAR and Classic motor sports coverage across our multi-media platforms around the globe.”
“I’m delighted that ESPN now offers sports fans world-class online coverage of football, rugby, cricket and motor racing,” said Lynne Frank, Managing Director of ESPN, Europe, Middle East and Africa. “Racing-Live.com is a leader in its category and has built a solid base from which to further develop our digital motor sports offering. We are particularly pleased that Racing-Live.com joins ESPN in the middle of another fantastic Formula 1 season.”
Michel Marvie, founder and Managing Director of RACING-LIVE S.A., added, “Launched in 1995, Racing-Live.com has established a strong and growing presence among worldwide motor racing fans, with live updates and news from F1, Moto GP and the world of Rally and Endurance racing.
ESPN has established itself as a leader in the digital space and is the ideal place for the next stage in the development of Racing-Live.”
ESPN’s digital media initiatives combine to deliver an industry-leading combination of live and on-demand sports events; up-to-the-minute sports news and information; scores, statistics and analysis; extensive on-demand and downloadable video and audio programming; fantasy sports, and video games across Web, mobile and other non-linear platforms.
ESPN Digital media properties are leading sports destinations: online- (ESPN.com); mobile (wireless Web sports site mobile.espn.com); radio (the most listened-to online sports radio destination ESPNRadio.com); the leading soccer, cricket and rugby news and information sites (ESPNsoccernet.com, Cricinfo and scrum.com); leading fantasy games that are played by millions of fans each year; one of the most successful premium content services on the Web (ESPN Insider); the most downloaded sports content on the iTunes Store, and a one-of-a-kind in-game content integration platform appearing in many of the most popular sports video games.
ESPN has expansive agreements with NASCAR to telecast or syndicate live races worldwide and ESPN Classic fans can see vintage F1 and Rally races in Europe.
About ESPN
ESPN, Inc. is the world’s leading multinational, multimedia sports entertainment company featuring a portfolio of over 50 multimedia sports assets. The company is comprised of six U.S. television networks (ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN Classic, ESPNEWS, ESPN Deportes, ESPNU), ESPN and ESPN2 HD simulcast services, ESPN Regional Television, ESPN International (networks, syndication, radio, web sites), ESPN Radio, ESPN.com, ESPN The Magazine, ESPN Enterprises, ESPN Zones (sports-themed restaurants), and other growing new businesses including ESPN360 (Broadband), Mobile ESPN, ESPN on Demand, ESPN Interactive and ESPN PPV. Based in Bristol, Ct., ESPN is 80 percent owned by ABC, Inc., which is an indirect subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company. The Hearst Corporation holds a 20 percent interest in ESPN.
About Racing-Live.com
Racing-Live.com is the world’s largest independent motor sports website with three million unique users. F1-Live.com was launched on the web in 1997 and expanded to Racing-Live.com in 2000 to incorporate coverage for all main European motor sports. Whilst the site’s main focus is Formula 1, which it covers in 6 languages, the site also covers Rally, Moto GP, endurance and kart racing. There is an extensive journalist network, creating in-house editorial content. The site is available on the web and mobile and includes a premium section for video and mobile alerts. The head office is based in Montpellier, France, with freelance editorial contributors around the world in all key markets.
About The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company, together with its subsidiaries and affiliates, is a leading diversified worldwide media and entertainment enterprise with four main business segments: media networks, parks and resorts, studio entertainment and consumer products. Disney is a Dow 30 company, had annual revenues of nearly $34 billion in its most recent fiscal year.
Racing-Live.com Screengrabs
Click on the following links for a racing-live.com screen grab. (To get a high resolution version, click on "All sizes" above the picture then follow the instructions):
http://www.espnclassic.com/asset_store/documents/Photos_Racing-live.com.zip
