ESPN Drops ‘Worldwide Leader’ Moniker—Except on LinkedIn
One of ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro’s biggest professional pet peeves is the internal use of one of his company’s most famous taglines. So, soon after Pitaro took over the top job at ESPN in 2018, the company began removing its “Worldwide Leader in Sports” declaration from official publications.
“I’ve asked people not to use it,” Pitaro said at a media event Wednesday. “I don’t think it’s representative of the culture here. … Others can refer to us as a leader. That’s great, and we take a lot of pride in leading, but referring to ourselves that way always felt a bit off.”
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ESPN launched in 1979 with the more humble slogan: “The Total Sports Cable Network.” But it quickly developed more bravado—and a moniker that has proved hard to kill. As of Thursday, ESPN’s verified LinkedIn page still refers to ESPN Inc. as “The Worldwide Leader in Sports,” for one.
ESPN has evolved significantly in its nearly 45 years of operation, to the point where Pitaro also takes issue with referring to the company “as a network.” Doing so, he argued, overlooks ESPN’s digital and social dominance.
“We think about ourselves as, not just a linear network, but a … multi-platform sports ecosystem,” Pitaro said.
The company manages the largest TikTok brand account, inside or beyond sports, and boasts 113 million digital visitors each month, No. 1 in the category. Today ESPN often points to its official mission: To Serve Sports Fans. Anytime. Anywhere.
“We’ve consistently adapted and innovated to evolve with sports fans and lead the charge in how they interact with sports digitally,” ESPN EVP, finance, research, strategy and office of the chairman Chara-Lynn Aguiar said Wednesday.
Notably though, she didn’t call the company the worldwide leader.
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