ESPN is a cable broadcaster that specializes in sports events, news and analysis.

ESPN’s majority owner is the Walt Disney Co., which bought ESPN’s parent network, ABC, in 1995. Hearst Corp. owns a minority stake in the network.

ESPN proclaims itself as the “worldwide leader in sports,” and it owns six cable channels, a biweekly magazine, and 46 international television networks. It also has about 750 radio affiliates. With a projected 2012 revenue of $8.2 billion and estimated value of $50 billion in 2014, it is by far the largest sports media brand in the United States and may be the nation’s most valuable media property overall.

Some have suggested, however, it could eventually be challenged by a variety of competitors, including CBS and Comcast, with its 2011 purchase of NBC Universal and subsequent launch of the NBC Sports Network, though that network has initially struggled to gain traction. News Corp. has also launched competing networks Fox Sports 1 and 2, which are squarely aimed at ending ESPN’s broadcast dominance.

ESPN was launched in 1979 as a small cable channel characterized by its banter and broadcasts of mostly minor sporting events. During the 1990s and 2000s, it moved further into original reporting, hiring numerous journalists from traditional media outlets.

ESPN’s website, launched in 1995, is the third-largest sports site on the web, behind Yahoo Sports and Fox Sports, and has won numerous awards. ESPN’s mobile site, launched in 2005, is the United States’ largest mobile sports site, its largest mobile news site and among the largest overall mobile sites. In 2013, the audience of ESPN’s mobile site surpassed that of its main site.

ESPN has been criticized for its forays into entertainment television, as well as its role in popularizing shouted sports discourse. It also has drawn fire for excessiveness, pushing certain topics to gain ratings, speculative reporting, and for a conflict of interest by over-covering sports for which it owns broadcasting rights and for playing a major role in college athletic scheduling and conference realignment. Those criticisms reached a peak in July 2010 with ESPN’s broadcast of NBA star LeBron James’ free-agency decision in a special partly dictated by James’ marketing company. Concerns about conflict of interest sprang up again in 2013, when ESPN pulled out of a documentary with Frontline on the NFL’s response to head injuries reportedly as a result of pressure from the league.