ESPN

ESPN.com's year-long revamp is finally ready today and set for its formal debut on January.

The new ESPN.com is slated to go live in January, but ESPN (NYSE: DIS) Insiders (i.e. paid subscribers) are already getting a preview. And the sports network is asking them for feedback on the redesign and its functionality. 

Scott Sassa, the former CEO of Friendster, the founder and CEO of Uber.com, the social network which recently closed down, and once the president of NBC West Coast, among others, has now joined Hearst Corp as president of Hearst Entertainment & Syndication, the operating group responsible for Hearst's interests in cable TV networks including ESPN (

Better late than never… While the Beijing Summer Olympics is a distant memory at this point, Associated Press President and CEO Tom Curley is looking ahead and is demanding that broadband access to the games be loosened, Sports Business Journal reported. Curley directed his comments to International Olympic Committee at a speech in Vancouver, adding that a court challenge might be in the offing unless the IOC revises its distribution policies.

For most of the sports-viewing world, the big news in the deal announced today between ESPN (NYSE: DIS) and the Bowl Championship Series is the price tag—an estimated $500 million—and the apparently inexorable move of major sports from free over-the-air broadcast to subscription-supported cable.

The details are still sketchy and the official announcement has yet to be made by ESPN (NYSE: DIS) and the Bowl Championship Series Group but Fox Sports said today that it will not be hosting the premiere college football games after its current contract expires in 2010.

ESPN founder Bill Rasmussen's nascent College Fanz Sports Network is expanding with the acquisition of Victory Sports Network, which bills itself as the "dominant voice" of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). No financial terms were disclosed. Based in Grand Island, Neb., VSN started in 2002 to cover NAIA football; it formerly was known as naiasports.net. It produces web sites, magazines and syndicated radio broadcasts. Founder Jason Dannelly joins College Fanz.

ESPN (NYSE: DIS) and The R&A, organizers of the British Open, have a new eight-year deal that expands digital and international rights—and a combo that isn't always the case in these deals—digital international rights. The package covers The Open, as they call it, the Senior Open Championship, and the next two Walker Cups held in the UK.

-- Project Kangaroo: CBS Interactive's longtime CTO and SVP Mark Kortekaas has joined Project Kangaroo, a UK VOD platform similar to Hulu, as CTO. Kortekaas, at CBS (NYSE: CBS) since 2000, left in September, just a couple of months after CBS bought CNET. Kortekaas had development oversight of CBS.com, CBSNews.com and CBS.Sportsline.com.

Cricinfo fans, look out: ESPN (NYSE: DIS) is fixed on an international rebranding drive. The US sports giant renamed 11-year-old Scrum.com "ESPNScrum.com" last week and will rebrand its European NASN TV channel "ESPN America" in February.