Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

Legends Behind the Lens: George Bodenheimer

05/06/2020

Legends Behind the Lens: George Bodenheimer He rose from the mailroom to become one of the most influential leaders in sports television history By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital

Friday, June 5, 2020 - 12:00 pm

Print This Story | Subscribe

Story Highlights

The story of American sports television is engrained in the history of this nation, rising on the achievements of countless incredible men and women who never once appeared on our screens. During this pause in live sports, SVG is proud to present a celebration of this great industry. Legends Behind the Lens is a look at how we got here seen through the people who willed it to be. Each weekday, we will share with you the story of a person whose impact on the sports-television industry is indelible.

Legends Behind the Lens is presented in association with the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame and the SVG Sports Broadcasting Fund. In these trying times - with so many video-production professionals out of work - we hope that you will consider (if you are able) donating to the Sports Broadcasting Fund. Do so by visiting sportsbroadcastfund.org.

___________________________

My first day at ESPN was a rather sharp awakening to my duties, recalls George Bodenheimer, former president of ESPN, of his first day working in the mailroom at the then fledgling network. I wore a coat and tie to work, and that lasted about 30 minutes as I was moving boxes, delivering mail, and going back and forth to the airport.

Those trips back and forth to the airport, and the opportunity to deliver mail to everyone in the office, put Bodenheimer in a key spot within the organization to learn, learn, and learn.

During the 40-minute ride to Bradley airport, I would take advantage of the opportunity to talk to people about their lines of work, what they did, and how they liked it, he says. It was every educational.

ESPN SVP/CTO Chuck Pagano was working in the ESPN engineering department in those early days and recalls Bodenheimer's visits.

He always had that inquisitive look in his eyes as he surveyed what I was doing in that electronics cavern, says Pagano. I tried to give him a quick and non-techie description of what I was doing, and he digested everything I gave him. He had the curiosity of an engineer in him from his very first days at ESPN.

That inquisitive nature was the first step in a career that today has culminated in a role as executive chairman for ESPN. In between, he worked his way up the ladder through sales and then, 14 years ago, was named president. During his time as president, Bodenheimer oversaw massive growth in the company that lay to rest any thoughts about the validity of sports-content creation and distribution. By January of this year, when he was appointed executive chairman, ESPN had grown to eight domestic TV networks, 48 international networks, 12 HD services, 18 Websites, and much, much more. And through it all, storytelling and technology were front and center.

George is a once in a generation leader. He is ESPN. And for all of his incredible accomplishments, he is truly the same great person that he was when he started [at ESPN] over 30 years ago. former ESPN executive Jed Drake

George is a once in a generation leader, says Jed Drake, ESPN, SVP and executive producer. He IS ESPN. And for all of his incredible accomplishments, he is truly the same great person that he was when he started here over 30 years ago.

Prior to becoming president, Bodenheimer was responsible for affiliate sales, advertising sales, marketing, and research for all of ESPN's domestic networks, a career path that began with his applying for a job as an affiliate sales representative in Texas. When he took the job, there was still much uncertainty about whether a 24-hour sports network was viable, but he quickly learned that there was a business model.

In the hundreds of small towns, we would have the same conversation with the cable operator: a 24-hour sports network is crazy, but this is a sports town, so we will give it a try. And that never varied, whether it was high school, college, or professional sports.

Cable operators' passion for sports programming lent additional credence to the ESPN mission of serving the sports fan anytime and anywhere. And technology played an important part.

When he took over as the leader in our sales department, I remember him telling me that he had to know more about technology because that was where our distribution partners were headed, Pagano recalls. He saw the future of his business needing a strong technical component years before it was apparent to others.

Among the technology successes under Bodenheimer's watch was the launch of a massive digital center (a second one is under construction) in Bristol, CT; the debut of the nation's first 1080p-capable broadcast center, in Los Angeles; and the launch of the nation's first HD sports network in 2001.

Whether it is HD, 3D, or putting content on mobile phones, we know the mission of the company is to be there first for the fans, adds Bodenheimer. It's an innovative spirit that drives the company, and I give all the credit to the employees.

The video in this profile was originally produced in 2012. For more on the life and career of this industry legend, visit their profile at the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame.
LINK: https://www.sportsvideo.org/2020/06/05/legends-behind-the-lens-george-...
See more stories from svg

North America Stories

18/03/2024

Telestream Introduces AI-Powered Tools for Rapid Content Delivery at NAB Show 2024

Telestream Introduces AI-Powered Tools for Rapid Content Delivery at NAB Show 20...

18/03/2024

Docufiction Film Bringing Down a Mountain Edited with DaVinci Resolve Studio

Docufiction Film Bringing Down a Mountain Edited with DaVinci Resolve Studio Brie Clayton March 18, 2024 0 Comments Blackmagic Design today announced ...

18/03/2024

FingerWorks Telestrators Releases Enhancements to Computer Vision Live Tracking Software at NAB 2024

FingerWorks Telestrators Releases Enhancements to Computer Vision Live Tracking ...

18/03/2024

DirecTV to Allow Subscribers to Opt Out of Local Stations

DirecTV announced a new feature over the weekend that will allow its subscribers to opt out of their local stations in return for a discount. Customers who ch...

18/03/2024

Master the Avatar State: Glowing Eyes in Adobe After Effects

Master the Avatar State: Glowing Eyes in Adobe After Effects Levi Borland March 18, 2024 0 Comments In this step-by-step tutorial, learn how to recrea...

18/03/2024

Next Season of Doctor Who' on Disney Plus May 10

The next season of Doctor Who, with Ncuti Gatwa as the 15th Doctor, premieres on Disney Plus and around the world May 10. It is the first season to launch on Di...

18/03/2024

CBC/WRAL Night Helps Bring in Over $26k for PBS NC

Capitol Broadcasting and WRAL-TV continued a decades-long tradition of supporting PBS North Carolina, our state's public television station, to good result ...

18/03/2024

Major League Soccer: IMG on Capturing Fan Rituals and Delivering Consistent Coverage

Major League Soccer: IMG on capturing fan rituals and delivering consistent cove...

18/03/2024

Smashing Padel: Inside Aurora's Innovative Production of the Inaugural Hexagon Cup

Smashing padel: Inside Aurora's innovative production of the inaugural Hexag...

18/03/2024

Airspeeder Teams Up With EMG for World's First Live Broadcast of Flying Car Series

Airspeeder teams up with EMG for world's first live broadcast of flying car ...

18/03/2024

Netflix Announces News About 26 Upcoming Nordic Titles - Including 12 Brand New Titles

Back to All News Netflix Announces News About 26 Upcoming Nordic Titles - Inclu...

16/03/2024

Josh Brolin Drama Outer Range' Returns To Prime Video May 16

Western drama Outer Range is back with season two on Prime Video May 16. Josh Brolin stars and executive produces. He also directs the season's penultimate ...

16/03/2024

Kristen Wiig Lined Up to Host SNL' for Fifth Time

Kristen Wiig hosts Saturday Night Live for the fifth time on April 6. Wiig stars in and executive produces Palm Royale, which premieres March 20 on Apple TV Plu...

16/03/2024

Magnite, Mediaocean Join To Make Buying CTV Campaigns Easier

Media buyers using Mediaocean's Prisma platform will be able to plan, execute and reconcile ad campaigns on connected TV directly from programmers who work ...

16/03/2024

Bitmovin, Yospace Combine To Insert Ads Into Live Streams

Streaming infrastructure company Bitmovin is teaming up with ad-insertion vendor Yospace to enable broadcasters to put commercials in live-streaming programming...

16/03/2024

Bumble Engages Peacock's The Traitors' To Promote Dating Deception Detector'

Bumble, the dating service, has tapped into Peacock's murder-mystery competi...

16/03/2024

Gerald Levin, Former Time Warner CEO, Has Died

Gerald Levin, former CEO of Time Warner, died March 13. He was 84 and had battled Parkinson's disease....

16/03/2024

Six Nations Rugby Championship Final Round March 16

The 2024 Guinness Six Nations Rugby Championship concludes March 16, with Ireland poised to win the championship. The annual tournament features England, France...

16/03/2024

Allen Media Group Renews Carriage Deal With Charter

Byron Allen's Allen Media Group said it reached a multiyear renewal of its carriage agreement with Charter Communications....

16/03/2024

NBCUniversal Working With Google, LiveRamp To Use First Party-Data for Personalized CTV Ads

NBCUniversal said it is working with Google and LiveRamp to deliver more effecti...

16/03/2024

Annette Bening Stars in Peacock Mystery Series Apples Never Fall'

Apples Never Fall, an edgy limited series about a woman who goes missing under curious circumstances, debuted on Peacock March 14. Liane Moriarty wrote the nove...

16/03/2024

NAB Show: Witbe to Demo Expanded Video Testing and Monitoring Suite

Witbe has announced that it will showcase its powerful automated testing and proactive monitoring technology at the 2024 NAB Show....

15/03/2024

FCC Increases Broadband Speed Benchmark to 100 Mbps

WASHINGTON, D.C. The Federal Communications Commission has voted to raise its baseline definition of broadband speeds. The FCC adopted the higher speeds as part...

15/03/2024

ATSC Moves To Add VVC Compression To 3.0 Standard

WASHINGTON D.C. The Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) is working on adding the Versatile Video Coding (VVC) format as an option to High Efficiency Vi...

15/03/2024

Scandinavian Operator Cuts Cloud Time-Shift, DVR Costs With Synamedia Technology

LONDON Scandinavian communications company and mobile network operator Telia Norway is deploying new optimization technology from Synamedia to reduce the cost o...

15/03/2024

GlobalM to Showcase Groundbreaking On-Prem and Hybrid Video Networking Solutions at NAB 2024

GlobalM to Showcase Groundbreaking On-Prem and Hybrid Video Networking Solutions...

15/03/2024

Sonnet Announces Four Thunderbolt to PCIe Card Expansion Solutions Offering Doubled Bandwidth, Supporting Up to 2x Performance

Sonnet Announces Four Thunderbolt to PCIe Card Expansion Solutions Offering Doub...

15/03/2024

Bulls Concessions + Your Nonprofit Team = Great Fundraising

Is your non-profit group looking for a new way to raise funds? Consider volunteering with the Durham Bulls. Volunteering at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park is a ...

15/03/2024

When Snow Falls on a Summer Day, Take a Magical Journey with My Oni Girl' on May 24

Back to All News When Snow Falls on a Summer Day, Take a Magical Journey with ...

15/03/2024

Live From THE PLAYERS Championship: New Truck Fleet, Live Drones Get Into the Mix for NBC Sports; Coverage Goes HDR

Live From THE PLAYERS Championship: New Truck Fleet, Live Drones Get Into the Mi...

15/03/2024

SVG Digital Engagement Forum (NYC, March 20): ESPN, CBS Sports, Amagi, TAG Video Systems Dissect the FAST Boom

SVG Digital Engagement Forum (NYC, March 20): ESPN, CBS Sports, Amagi, TAG Video...

15/03/2024

Pete Distad, Former Apple, Hulu Exec, Named CEO of New ESPN, FOX, WBD Streaming JV

Pete Distad, Former Apple, Hulu Exec, Named CEO of New ESPN, FOX, WBD Streaming ...

15/03/2024

Live From Big East Men's Tournament: FOX Sports Brings Back Pair of Live Drones for Second Year in a Row

Live From Big East Men's Tournament: FOX Sports Brings Back Pair of Live Dro...

15/03/2024

After a Record-Breaking 2023, NWSL Enters 2024 Season With More Production Partners, Free DTC Platform

After a Record-Breaking 2023, NWSL Enters 2024 Season With More Production Partn...

15/03/2024

In the Beginning: Teaser Trailer Hints at Origin Story of City Hunter'

Back to All News In the Beginning: Teaser Trailer Hints at Origin Story of City Hunter'Play Video Play Video Entertainment 15 March 2024 GlobalJapan ...

15/03/2024

Make Stereo Downmixes More Immersive

By Craig Anderton One of Atmos's coolest features is scalability. No matter how complex your Atmos project may be, you can render it as Binaural, 5.1, 5.1....

14/03/2024

Allen Media Group Renews Carriage Deal with Charter

LOS ANGELES Byron Allen's Allen Media Group (AMG) has announced that it has reached a multi-year renewal agreement with Charter Communications Inc, (Charter...

14/03/2024

TAG's NAB 2024 Plans Include New Technologies and Benefit-Rich Integrations to Simplify and Optimize Media Workflows

TAG's NAB 2024 Plans Include New Technologies and Benefit-Rich Integrations ...

14/03/2024

Global Objects Relies on URSA Mini Pro 12K for Rob Lowe Virtual Production Project

Global Objects Relies on URSA Mini Pro 12K for Rob Lowe Virtual Production Proje...

14/03/2024

Mocha Pro's Award-Winning Motion Tracking Adds SynthEyes 3D Camera Solves

Mocha Pro's Award-Winning Motion Tracking Adds SynthEyes 3D Camera Solves Brie Clayton March 14, 2024 0 Comments The 2024 release from Boris FX de...

14/03/2024

Berklee Career Jam Concert Showcases Student Artists for Music and Entertainment Industry

Berklee Career Jam Concert Showcases Student Artists for Music and Entertainment...

14/03/2024

BPMI to Host 22nd Annual Showcase at Brighton Music Hall on April 17

BPMI to Host 22nd Annual Showcase at Brighton Music Hall on April 17 The Berklee Popular Music Institute will showcase performances from six rising stars who ...

14/03/2024

NextGen TV Spotlights HDR at 2024 NAB Show

With ATSC 3.0 (aka NextGen TV) now reaching approximately 75% of U.S. households, emphasis at the 2024 NAB Show will be on refinements and new applications for...

14/03/2024

Evertz Highlights Its Powerful NEXX Processing And Router...

At NAB 2024 (Booth SU2027), Evertz will be showing its NEXX next generation processing and routing solution, a compact and robust product that provides broadcas...

14/03/2024

A la Vista collaborates with Videomenthe to subtitle its...

A la Vista is an audiovisual production association based in Switzerland, entirely dedicated to social issues and the promotion of diversity and world cultures....

14/03/2024

Margaret Orr, WDSU New Orleans Chief Meteorologist, Sets Retirement

Margaret Orr, chief meteorologist at WDSU New Orleans, has announced her retirement. She has spent 45 years at WDSU and will sign off March 29....

14/03/2024

Apple TV Plus Orders Owen Wilson Golf Comedy

Apple TV Plus has ordered a comedy that has Owen Wilson leading the cast and executive producing. Wilson plays Pryce Cahill, an over-the-hill golfer who loses h...

14/03/2024

BIA Lowers Forecast for 2024 Local Ad Revenue To $172 Billion

Powered by an election year, local advertising revenues are expected to increase 9.3% year over year to $172 billion in 2024, according to an updated forecast f...

14/03/2024

Two Netflix Shows Open Atop TVision Power Score Rankings

Two new Netflix shows were the top programs in TVisions Power Score rankings of series on connected TV for the week of March 4....

14/03/2024

Clinch Rolling Out Creative Attribution Reporting for CTV Ads

Dynamic ad-serving company Clinch said it is rolling out advanced creative attribution reporting for connected TV ad campaigns....