American sports network ESPN is to pull out of Eurosport with the intention of developing its own brand in Europe. The new shareholder structure of Eurosport International sees Canal+ holding 49.5 per cent and its operating partner TF1 with a majority 50.5 per cent stake. Eurosport France, which provides a daily opt-out into French homes sees the operator Canal+ with 39 per cent, TF1 36 per cent and Havas Images 25 per cent. NTL’s Premium Sports versions the international feed for the UK market.

It has been an open secret for some time that ESPN wanted to step back from its Eurosport holding – a stake it has held since its involvement in the network’s precursor in the former Screensport. Eurosport has successfully pursued a strategy of offering local language content as an extended basic offering to cable operators and has been able to derive a higher carriage fee for these services while restricting free-to-air satellite to predominantly English and German commentaries.

In a statement George Bodenheimer, president, ESPN Inc said “We have enjoyed our relationship with our Eurosport partners and are proud of the contribution we’ve made to its success. At this stage in our development we have decided to focus our resources on the establishment of the ESPN brand in Europe across a broad portfolio of businesses.”

The move comes at a time when Fox Sports World is further expanding its operations outside of the United States. Already active in the Middle East alongside ESPN, Fox has recently entered the East European market.

ESPN also has a sizeable web presence. The ESPN.com website is the place where Americans are most likely to visit for the latest baseball scores. The Web strategy has been successfully emulated by BSkyB, which is now heavily promoting the Sky Sports.com brand, though Eurosport has so far failed to capitalise on such opportunities.