ESPN is making its largest marketing investment in a single sporting event in its 30-year history as it looks to use the World Cup to transform the audience for football in the US.

The Walt Disney-owned sports broadcaster is trusting that a combination of demographic changes in the US and the increased availability of Premier League and other European games on cable channels and online has prepared the ground for football to break through in the US after many previous false dawns.

ESPN has exclusive US domestic rights, with the exception of Spanish language broadcasts, for the first time and is planning a multimedia blitz from live online streaming to radio broadcasts, mobile applications and special editions of ESPN Magazine. ESPN has also said it is planning two months of “respectful education” about the sport and the host country before the first game on June 11th.

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