Think Globally, Act Locally: Comcast Checks ESPN’s Regional Plans

Apparently, the world is not enough for the “worldwide leader in sports.” ESPN recently launched a series of websites tailored to local fans, and it has at least one cable giant a little nervous. In the last year, ESPN has introduced sites exclusively covering Dallas, Boston, and Chicago teams, with New York and LA on the way. In response to ESPN’s planned takeover of local markets, Comcast has announced it’s own plans to beef up local sports coverage in cities where the ESPN empire may see fit to invade:

John Ourand writes for the Sports Business Journal:

Comcast is interviewing reporters and editors to staff online news operations in Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Chicago and San Francisco. Its executives are using the same template in these markets that they used in Boston, where Comcast spent millions of dollars earlier this fall to launch a news operation from scratch.

Eric Grilly, Executive Vice President and Chief Digital Officer for Comcast Sports Group, calls it “the single largest investment outside of making an acquisition in the business.” Comcast’s plan is to add some beat writers, spruce up their websites, and hope that the “competitive advantage” of existing relationships with teams and fans is enough to ward off an ESPN monopolization of all things sports.

And while fans may feel some sort of loyalty to local anchors and writers, one wonders when the call of witty banter and sleek-ass intros will become too much to ignore for the local fan. Regardless, this showdown will provide an interesting preview as to how much resistance ESPN will run into on the regional level, and how much time we have until Lee Corso is sent by ESPNToledo to cover your child’s youth soccer games.