ESPN announces 80 percent of subscriber base locked up for 2012 (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Sports cable network ESPN has 80percent of its subscriber base under contract through 2012,George Bodenheimer, president of ESPN and co-chairman of WaltDisney Co's Media Networks told analysts on Tuesday.

"It's a great thing. Sports is growing ... and ESPN iscontinuing to ride that wave," Bodenheimer told the DeutscheBank Securities Media and Telecom Conference.

(Reporting by Gina Keating, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)