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ESPN may not be a household name in Britain but the sports giant is iconic in its native land. The pay-TV firm, which last week spent an estimated £90 million to buy the British live TV rights to 46 English Premiership football games next season, is a huge and trusted brand in America.
Founded in 1979, the Entertainment Sports Programming Network has done at least as much for sports coverage in the United States as Rupert Murdoch's Sky here. Flagship news show SportsCenter is cult viewing. In addition to six US TV channels, there are magazines, restaurants, clothing ranges - and 45 channels overseas.
British viewers have not had great reason to watch ESPN's two UK channels. ESPN Classic shows archive events while ESPN America has US coverage. It also owns websites cricinfo, scrum - for rugby fans - and soccernet.
Now the broadcaster, which is 80% owned by Disney's ABC and 20% by the Hearst Corporation, has dramatically raised the stakes by snapping up the rights to two of the six packages of English Premiership games for the 2009-10 season. A new ESPN channel will launch in time for the season kick-off.
The broadcaster has also paid another undisclosed sum, thought to be £150 million, for a single package of 23 games for the three seasons afterwards. That is a total outlay of about £240 million.
ESPN has seized the opportunity after the collapse of Irish pay-TV firm Setanta 10 days ago. Setanta had a year left to run on its two-package deal of 46 games, and had signed up to a single-package deal for the following three years in an auction in February.
Some might regard it as courageous for Disney boss Bob Iger and his British-based executives to take such a punt. Naturally, they are anxious not to make the same mistakes as the Irish.
ESPN does have a reputation as conservative and cautious. It is also keen to point out that it has had a longstanding involvement with football coverage in the States and many other countries such as Australia and South Africa.
ESPN broadcast Champions League football for the last 15 years in the US. Sky pundit Andy Gray, the Scottish ex-footballer, worked for ESPN last summer for its US coverage of Euro 2008.
We can rest assured, say executives, that UK presenters will be largely British and content will be "locally relevant". One of its main soccer presenters in the States, Tommy Smyth, is described as "Marmite" by some Britons - you love him or hate him.
ESPN has had its eye on Europe for some time, bidding unsuccessfully for German Bundesliga rights last October and at least one package of English Premier rights at the start of 2009. Plainly the fact that it was not willing to spend as much as Setanta looks prudent.
Now ESPN has got the rights at a better price. Assuming it paid £90 million for 46 games, that could be £40 million less than what Setanta paid.
The Premiership can be a compelling proposition for consumers, and Setanta had nearly three million customers, who paid chiefly to watch those 46 live games. But having the rights to only 23 games from 2010-11 when market-leader Sky will expand from four to five packages - 115 games - raises questions about whether ESPN can make it work. One senior figure at another broadcaster is privately unconvinced.
ESPN, which is led in Britain by Lynne Frank, an American who has worked in UK television for 15 years, is avoiding some of Setanta's pitfalls. She won't sell directly to consumers as Setanta did to 1.2 million of its subscribers. Instead, the US broadcaster's packages will be offered on existing TV platforms - as Setanta also did. There's been no deal yet with Virgin and BT but, significantly, ESPN has already got Sky on board.
While Setanta saw itself as rivalling the Murdoch firm, it is clear that ESPN wants a more complementary role. The idea is ESPN, which might cost £10 a month, will be an attractive top-up for fans who probably already have Sky Sports.
For Sky, which is facing fierce renewed criticism about its dominance from regulator Ofcom, being seen to collaborate makes sense. ESPN has existing relationships with Murdoch's News Corp - notably, a joint venture with Star TV in Asia.
Still there is little room for sentiment. ESPN admits it has not yet decided exactly what other content will sit alongside the Premiership games.
Setanta's collapse means other British rights are set to be auctioned off including Scottish Premier League, English FA Cup and Indian cricket. ESPN may find itself in a potentially tricky situation, where it could feel compelled to bid for rights to beef up its offering.
Executives at ESPN's London HQ in Hammersmith say they know the UK well, and won't be rash. They are interested in rights "when they are available - at the right price". They stress it is a long-term plan and, with Disney's backing, they can probably afford it.
They believe that the "ESPNisation" of its coverage - "quality, authority and a sense of personality" - will work.
ESPN's roots in Europe go back a long way. It used to have a 33% stake in Eurosport, the popular sports channel, but sold out seven years ago because ESPN wanted to develop its own brand. That fits with another ESPN mantra: "Build the brand profitably".
To avoid the fate of Setanta or ITV Digital, another doomed TV sporting outfit, that's what ESPN must do.
