Broadcasting of sports events events from the 1980s, mainly horse races and so-called minority sports. In the early 1990s this arrangement was shaken up by the arrival of pay-TV in the form of BSkyB. Their dedicated sports channels have since become the only place for some major sports to be seen. Starting in 2006 the Irish company Setanta Sports emerged as a challenger to Sky Sports' dominance of the British pay-TV sports market; however, Setanta's UK channel went into bankruptcy administration and off the air in 2009. Between 2009 and 2013 ESPN made an attempt to challenge Sky Sports before its British operations were
American Broadcasting Company acquisition integrated ABC's ten owned-and-operated television and 21 radio stations; its 80% interest in ESPN, ownership interests in The History Channel, A&E Television Networks, and Lifetime Entertainment; and Capital Cities/ABC's magazine and newspaper properties into the company. As FCC ownership rules forbade the company from keeping both it and KABC-TV, Disney sold Los Angeles independent station KCAL-TV to Young Broadcasting for $387 million. On April 4, Disney sold the four newspapers that ABC had controlled under Capital Cities to Knight Ridder for $1.65 billion. Following the merger, Thomas S. Murphy left ABC with Robert Iger taking his place as president