John Skipper

Title: President, ESPN and co-chair, Disney Media Networks

Years in Cable: 6

Education: BA, Literature, UNC: MA, Literature, Columbia

Why Him? Fast-rising Skipper has certainly earned his brand-new title. He’s been a key player in ESPN’s continuing domination in sports programming across platforms. In July, Skipper championed a coup for the network, adding to its portfolio of 30 major conferences, leagues, commissions and associations—and its 2010 score of the BCS Championship Game—by swiping NBC’s 43-year run of Wimbledon tennis championships coverage. The 12-year agreement beginning next year gives ESPN U.S. TV rights to all matches.

Touchdown! ESPN cleared the goalpost in September with a mammoth deal to renew its contract for “Monday Night Football”—the highest-rated show on cable—through 2021. Skipper brokered the $15.2 billion coup, which allows ESPN to maintain more NFL content than any other cabler except NFL Network, with an additional 500 hours of league-branded content and streaming to Verizon cells and tablets via its WatchESPN app.

Year Ahead: Game on! ?

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Nielsen Gauges Cross-Platform Viewership

Nielsen launched monthly viewership visualization tool “The Gauge” Thursday. It shows how audiences in the US use streaming services on their TVs and how the streaming usage compares to traditional

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