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ABC and ESPN may team
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February 26, 1998: 4:56 p.m. ET
Disney mulling whether to put ABC Sports under ESPN banner on network
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - ABC Sports and the cable sports network ESPN, the adoptive siblings of parent Walt Disney Co., may soon be looking more like siamese twins.
Disney is mulling whether to speed up recent teamwork between the units by wedding them beneath a single ESPN banner, a spokesman for the entertainment giant said Thursday.
But whether any deeper collaboration results, possibly leading to the elimination of the famed ABC Sports moniker, is still a toss-up.
"It seems like a natural evolution," said John Dreyer, a Disney spokesman, adding that the company has not made any announcement on any such "evolutionary" move. "Will it happen? Maybe, maybe not."
There is already overlap between ESPN and ABC Sports, which Disney bought as part of a $19 billion deal for ABC/Capital Cities Inc. in 1996.
Steve Bornstein is president of both divisions, and the cherubic ESPN anchor Chris Berman hosts a halftime show during ABC's Monday Night Football, a perennial top-performer in TV's Nielsen ratings.
Analysts say executives may be looking for synergies between ESPN's recognition among fans and ABC's big distribution system.
"It sounds like they want to capitalize on the ESPN brand," said Harold Vogel, an analyst at Cowen & Co. "There's no reason it could not be done."
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Walt Disney Co.
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