Ilan Ben-Hanan is out at ESPN after a 24-year run. The SVP of Programming and Content Strategy was among roughly 30 layoffs Tuesday. John Ourand of Puck reported Ben-Hanan was the most senior executive impacted.
Ben-Hanan built a strong reputation inside ESPN. Many viewed him as one of the company’s rising stars.
“After almost 24 years, I can boil my experience here down to one word – gratitude,” said Ben-Hanan in a social media post. “Where else could I pitch the idea for Jimmy V Week, and have it turn into an annual initiative that’s raised over $100M for cancer research? Where else would I get the chance to lead multi-billion dollar rights negotiations for myriad college conferences, NCAA Championships, the College Football Playoff, the NHL, and the chance to run the SEC Network and ACC Network, along with so much more.”
Most recently, he oversaw all sports on ABC. Earlier in his career, he managed key relationships with college conferences.
He also played a major role in rights deals for the CFP, NCAA, and NHL. His fingerprints are across several of ESPN’s biggest properties. He helped shape long-term strategy during a period of aggressive rights spending.
“Where else would I get the chance to work with the most talented, passionate, and committed colleagues, across both ESPN and The Walt Disney Company? If you had told me in 2002 that I’d get to do all that, I’d sign up over and over again,” said Ben-Hanan.
