GoPro inks deal with ESPN for this year’s X Games

By Lisa Eadicicco January 22, 2013

GoPro Hero3 (alternate2)

Camera maker GoPro has just inked a deal with ESPN ensuring that the sports channel will use its action-branded cameras for the X Games live broadcast in Aspen. From Jan. 24 through the 27, ESPN will be airing footage captured by the company’s cameras designed with athletics in mind.

“We are thrilled to be working with ESPN on X Games,” Paul Crandell, GoPro’s vice president of marketing, said in a statement on Tuesday. “GoPro has become the best-selling camera in the world thanks to the passion and creativity of action sports athletes and fans across the world, so it feels fitting that, together with ESPN, we’ll be opening up a new chapter of the X Games.

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The newly signed three-year agreement appoints GoPro as an official ESPN partner for the winter-themed athletic event.

“And what’s more humbling is that ESPN, the premier Sports channel of all-time, is counting on our little cameras to push the boundaries of the content and viewing experience,” Crandell also said.

During this year’s games, GoPro will be spearheading major events on site such as the GoPro Snowmobile Best Trick at X Games Aspen and the GoPro BMX Big Air at X Games Los Angeles. As part of this new partnership, the camera manufacturer will be producing its own content for the X Games which will focus on athlete stories and cultural narratives.

GoPro has not announced any further details on the types of cameras it will use for this month’s X Games, but there’s a possibility we’ll see some footage from its GoPro Hero 3 lineup. The action-camera maker unveiled this line of next-gen cameras in October – marking a thinner and lighter improving from its previous Hero line. Most notably, the black version of the Hero 3 can even shoot video at up to 4K resolution.

GoPro touts itself as the world’s most versatile camera, and a recent teardown from iFixit delves into the Hero 3’s internal components. Since its flaunted as a rugged on-the-go type camera, most of the components are fairly simple to remove. We’re sure to experience some of this flexibility and extreme vantage points at this year’s X Games via ESPN.

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