ESPN, looking beyond the middle-aged male sports fan, will unveil a new digital strategy Wednesday aimed at the Dogtown crowd. The move seeks to establish online what the Walt Disney Co.-owned cable channel did more than a decade ago in television when it created the X Games, a twice-yearly competition of assorted nonteam, untraditional sports events catering to extreme sports enthusiasts. Called ESPN Action Sports Network, the new hub will launch in the fall and encompass a cluster of Internet sites, each devoted to a specific "action sport," to offer coverage of events that aren't usually carried on mainstream television. ESPN wants to draw the audience for extreme sports to the online world, where avid sports fans spend nearly as much time watching video streams and reading and posting on blogs as they do sitting in front of the television, according Jupiter Research. Finger said the network developed the EXPN.com website about a year ago to start offering daily content of extreme sports, but that will now become ESPN Action Sports Network. Hoping to build on that momentum, the Action Sports Network will offer more original digital programs such as "Guerilla Cam," which takes fans behind the scenes of events. The site will provide exclusive content and "first looks" at sports films, including snowboarder/producer Travis Rice's film "That's It, That's All." And it'll invite fans to upload and share their own sports videos as it seeks to form a community around each of the sports. ESPN also struck deals with sports information and product websites Surfline.com, Vans.com and Active Ride Shop to share content and do cross-promotion.http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/newmedia/la-fi-espn30-2008jul30,0,5727077.story?track=rss
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