DBWI: What if ESPN wasn't sabotaged by Ted Turner?

Around 1983-84, ESPN was up for sale. ABC and Sports Illustrated were interested, but Ted Turner outbid them for their services. He promised to take the network to the next level, but within a few months, he let go many members of the staff, and then shut the network down completely to get rid of the competition.

However, what if ESPN was bought by one of those other buyers, and ended up lasting to this day? How would sports programming be different?
 
Vitale

And, that Dick Vitale was annoying during NCAA Basketball games. He wasn't offered a job by the other networks after Turner did his hatchet job on the network.

That Chris Berman did well for himself, though. After being one of the hosts for NBC's NFL pre-game in the 80's and 90's, he went to FOX in 1998, and is still part of their pre-game show, all the while still using his Bermanisms and his Swami character.

Tom Mees didn't do to bad as well. He went to Canada to be the studio host of CBC's Hockey night in Canada, and then he got a job as the play-by-play analyst for the Bruins on their local TV in 1988. Then, in 1995, when FOX got the NHL, he became their studio host(his drowning death was butterflied away because of living in a different town). Now, he is the studio host for the NHL on NBC.
 
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