Sports media juggernaut ESPN held its upfront presentation in New York City this morning. Yankees closer Mariano Rivera and Soccer star Landon Donovan joined executives in the Best Buy Theater to pitch advertisers on spending big bucks with the Disney-owned company.

ESPN president John Skipper opened up the show by talking about “the elephant in the room” as the elephant mascot for the University of Alabama walked behind him.

“Several broadcast companies have decided–in the early 2010s–that there might be something to this whole national sports network thing,” Skipper quipped, referencing the NBC Sports Network, CBS Sports Network and the upcoming Fox Sports 1. After the event, Skipper told a group of reporters that while he embraces the competition, he thinks ESPN is still in driver’s seat.

“They are going to be in the business, we don’t expect this to be over and done, but what we do expect is to compete vigorously,” Skipper said. “What Fox does have is more live rights. Fox has more to start with, but again, in any comparison between our collection of assets and their collection of assets, we have a significantly broader, and better, portfolio.”

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Every few years, when an major election rolls around, TV ad pods fill with ads promoting or opposing candidates and issues. In between the elections, however, the issues ads tend to be relegated to cable news channels, which rely on smaller, wonkier audiences when there isn’t big breaking news.

ESPN (which has a news operation that rivals Fox News in terms of the number of employees, and has more total employees than CNN), has always been a popular channel for advertisers. Now, however, the issues ads that dominate cable news are moving over to the sports channel, and the reason why is fascinating. Politico explains:

Media strategists tell POLITICO they offer up the all-sports network as an option to clients who want to get their issues in front of Obama and top White House officials, known as big sports fans and rabid ESPN watchers.

“It’s certainly a tactic that’s talked about a lot,” said one media strategist, who had a client advertise on ESPN in hopes of reaching Obama during the climate change debate of his first term. “It was for exactly that reason.”

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The Disney annual shareholders meeting is always an interesting one to listen to. With such a wide range of shareholders, from various public and private groups, from across the country and across all persuasions, some of the questions can be… memorable.

There was a question a few years back when a shareholder demanded that the 1946 film “Song of the South,” now considered to be incredibly racist by today’s standards, be released on DVD.

This year, one of the questions focused on “the liberal bias” of ABC News and ESPN.

The National Center for Public Policy Research, a conservative research institute (and Disney shareholder) sent general counsel Justin Danhof to the meeting on its behalf.

Citing Brian Ross‘ erroneous Tea Party report after the Aurora shooting, and a comment from an ESPN columnist about Republicans, Danhof told Disney CEO Bob Iger:

“Liberal bias pervades Disney’s media outlets, it’s time to stop denying the bias and do something about it. Our company’s leaders should show the intellectual honesty to admit it exists, it is a problem, and let’s start working together on a solution.”

Danhof’s question was greeted by the crowd of shareholders with applause, and boos. Iger responded frankly, but deftly:
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Could former MSNBC and Current TV host Keith Olbermann be making a return to sports TV… at the place where he got his start, no less?

The exceedingly well-sourced James Andrew Miller, the co-author of the terrific book Those Guys Have All The Fun–which chronicles the rise of ESPN–reports in the NY Times that Olbermann wants to return to the iconic sports cable channel in some form. We noted over the weekend that Olbermann appeared in an ESPN “30 for 30″ short film.

Even more amazingly, he got Olbermann, Olbermann’s former “SportsCenter” partner Dan Patrick and ESPN president John Skipper on the record on the matter.

“I had the privilege to spend some time with John Skipper,” [Olbermann] said. “His vision and charm were readily apparent, and judging by his leadership, his family name was prophetic…”

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Former MSNBC and Current TV host Keith Olbermann got his big break in TV at ESPN, where, alongside Dan Patrick, he turned “SportsCenter” into “The Big Show.” Olbermann left ESPN in 1997, not on the best of terms.

Now, however, Olbermann is returning to ESPN… sort of. In a short film that is part of ESPN’s “30 for 30″ series, Olbermann appears to talk about the legendary T-206 Honus Wagner baseball card. Olbermann is an avid baseball card collector.

WATCH:

PBS longform journalism series “Frontline” and ESPN’s investigative series “Outside The Lines” are partnering up to investigate concussions in the NFL.

The series kicks off today with a segment on “Outside The lines” at 3 PM, focusing on the career and death of Hall of Famer Mike Webster. Online companion stories and podcasts will be available on the ESPN and “Frontline” websites, including “Concussion Watch,” a website which will track each confirmed concussion during this year’s NFL season.

The partnership will culminate in Fall, 2013 with a “Frontline” documentary on the subejct, as well as a book written by ESPN reporters Steve Fainaru and Mark Fainaru-Wada.

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You thought it was over, didn’t you?

You thought after the final debate, you would be able to turn off the political pandering from Mitt Romney and President Obama. Never again would politicians force you to miss “The Voice” or “How I Met Your Mother.” Well, it isn’t over yet.

According to Sports Business Daily‘s John Ourand, the Romney and Obama camps want to make one final push for voters during ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” game on November 5. You may recall that in 2008, Obama and challenger John McCain appeared in interviews during halftime of the “MNF” game before election day (pictured above).

ESPN has not made a final decision yet, but appears likely to have its longtime NFL studio host Chris Berman interview President Barack Obama and Gov. Mitt Romney during halftime of the Eagles-Saints game Nov. 5, according to Vince Doria, ESPN’s senior vice president and director of news. The campaigns also have expressed an interest in appearing on ESPN’s “Mike and Mike” morning radio show.

“We’ve been approached and are strongly considering doing it again,” Doria said. “If we do those, we will try to treat the candidates in a fair manner and try to find some questions that have a sports connection but have a substance to them.”

ESPN is the subject of the cover story in Bloomberg Businessweek this week, and it is a doozy of a piece. Among the topics covered is the tricky issue of journalistic Independence at ESPN, which has an enormous news division.

ESPN has long had to balance covering sports issues completely and fairly, while also engaging in multi-billion dollar deals with the leagues it covers. “SportsCenter” may be what everyone thinks of when they think of ESPN, but the network also produces some excellent and hard-hitting longform journalism in its documentary films and “E:60″
newsmagazine.

[ESPN president John] Skipper adamantly defends ESPN’s journalism. “The programming guys who manage those relationships have no say in news and information. Those lines do not cross. There is only one person who has a foot in each camp, and that’s me. … No story has ever been compromised by having a business interest.”

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NBC will not be the only U.S. TV network covering the London Olympics. CNN and ESPN will be covering the games too, though because NBC has the exclusive rights, they will have to improvise a bit. Neither organization is allowed to broadcast from inside any of the Olympic venues.

CNN’s coverage will feature “Piers Morgan Tonight” on CNN, “World Sport” on CNNI and “Morning Express” on HLN.

CNN has secured a studio with “a panoramic view of Olympic Park and Olympic Stadium” where “PMT” and “World Sport” will originate from. “PMT” has already interviewed Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps, and will likely be trying to convince others to hop over to their studio for a chat as the games progress. “World Sport” will update CNNI viewers on the latest news from the games, while HLN will feature packages about athletes, as well as reactions from some of their hometowns.

As the country’s largest sports channel, ESPN has to cover the games well, all while not having access to many of the venues or players. Some of ESPN’s people on the ground explain the challenges to the network’s Front Row blog:

“We’ll have to use buses, trains and The Tube [London's underground transport system] because media buses are all on set schedules, and we have to chase down our own sound,” Spencer says.

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ABC “Good Morning America” anchor Robin Roberts is returning to the ESPN family to host a new eight-part interview series, the sports channel announced at its upfront presentation this morning. Roberts will host “In the Game with Robin Roberts Presented by Lexus,” which will feature the anchor interviewing prominent female athletes. The first guest will be pro softball player Jennie Finch.

The interviews will air on ESPN’s “SportsCenter” on Thursdays between 9 AM and 12 PM, as well as on espnW.com and ABCNews.com. Furthermore, excerpts from the interviews will be featured in ESPN The Magazine, and there will be “a robust digital and social media execution” to drive viewership. ESPN says this is the first cross-platform project between ABC News and espnW.

Roberts first gained national attention at ESPN as an anchor on “SportsCenter.” In 1995, she began to split her time between ABC News and ESPN, joining ABC full-time as “Good Morning America” co-anchor in 2005.

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