ESPN PRod Pod: Mike Foss’s Digital Impact at ESPN is NOT “Debateable”
Welcome to Season 2, Episode 2 of the ESPN PRod Pod, the official podcast of the ESPN Communications Department. The PRod Pod takes you behind ESPN’s unmatched storytelling by introducing the people behind the content – who they are, where they’re from and how they create the magic.
Talk about making an impact. ESPN Vice President, Digital Production Mike Foss first arrived in Bristol, Conn., in 2017; less than five years later he oversees the burgeoning, industry-leading ESPN digital empire, including ESPN’s YouTube presence, SportsCenter on Snapchat, multiple digital studio and live (often on-site) presentations, Podcasts, ESPN+ studio offerings and the newly-launched, mid-day program, “Debateable.”
As Communications Associate Producer and PRod Pod host Jon McLeod discovers, what is surely NOT debateable is how Foss and his team are impacting the way fans consume ESPN.
“We had 1.2 billion views in October,” Foss tells McLeod, “no media publisher has ever done that.”
And virtually every month, ESPN Digital eclipses its previous highs across key metrics. Foss shares his overall philosophy for digital content and zeroes in on the overflowing goodness of ESPN’s YouTube page, which he tells the PRod Pod, offers a “comprehensive representation of” what ESPN provides.
In the concluding “Fab 5” segment with ESPN Fan Relations Senior Coordinator Kiana Lowe, Foss divulges an affection for Marvel’s Daredevil, a truism for all who partake in social media and even nearly breaks out in a rendition of his favorite Blippi tune.
“The ’Excavator Song’ is a JAM,” Foss says.
And that is not debateable!
ESPN Digital Sets New Sports Category Record with 120 Million U.S. Users in October
ESPN Digital Sets New Sports Category Record with 120 Million U.S. Users in October
Jon McLeod and Kiana Lowe produced the podcast.
