ESPN Denies Quitting Documentary Over NFl Ties

08/23/2013 – ESPN ended a 15 month-long collaboration with PBS on a documentary about head injuries in the National Football League. According to the New York Times, ESPN’s decision came after a lunch meeting between the sport network’s President John Skipper, Executive Vice President for Production John Wildhack and NFL’s Commissioner Roger Goodell and Network President Steve Bornstein. According to NFL’s spokesperson, the Times’ accusation that the NFL demanded ESPN to withdraw from the project was not true, which was reiterated by the ESPN spokesperson as well. NFL’s popular program “Monday Night Football” has been one of the most lucrative productions of ESPN, a sports network co-owned by Walt Disney. In 2011, NFL renewed the show at ESPN for eight more years as a $15.2 billion deal including TV and digital rights.

According to ESPN, the network decided to end its collaboration on the documentary titled “Frontline’s League of Denial: The NFL’s Concussion Crisis” due to its inability to control the show’s editorial content. Chris LaPlaca, the sport network’s spokesperson, also emphasized that ESPN’s decision was not influenced by the “Monday Night Football” deal with NFL, which statement contradicted the New York Times’ story on NFL’s pressure on ESPN. Skipper stated that ESPN has been reporting on the issue of players’ head injuries over two decades now, and it will continue to do so as part of their commitment to journalism.

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