Jason Dasey
Jason Dasey (born Sydney, April 11, 1962) is an Australian journalist and broadcaster, who is a co-host of the Pacific Rim and Atlantic editions of SportsCenter on ESPN International.
Early Career
Jason grew up in Sydney where he attended North Sydney Boys High School. During his final two years at school, he was also a freelance reporter for Australian Associated Press. In early 1980 at the age of 17, Jason became a cadet journalist with The Sydney Morning Herald, Australia’s oldest newspaper.
Towards the end of his four year stint with the Herald covering police rounds, sports and TV and entertainment news, Jason stumbled on his biggest story in September 1983 when a personal vacation to New York City coincided with Australia winning sailing’s America’s Cup. Jason borrowed a blazer and talked his way into the New York Yacht Club before sending back an insider’s account to the Herald on the night the United States lost the America’s Cup for the first time after 132 years.
Move to Television
Largely as a result of that story, 21-year-old Jason was offered a job at Australia’s Seven Network in Sydney. Between late 1983 and mid-1985, he was an on-air reporter for Seven News and for the current affairs show, Terry Willesee Tonight. After leaving Seven, Jason worked as a researcher for six months for BBC News in London and as a sports producer/reporter for two years at Australia’s SBS TV network.
In late 1987, Jason left Australia to base himself in London. After working as a freelance producer for Reuters TV and BBC TV, Jason became a sports producer and reporter for European satellite network Sky News in January 1989 as it launched in Britain. A year later at Sky, he gained his first experience in the studio, as a weekend sports presenter.
BBC and CNN Jobs
At the end of 1994, Jason biggest break came when, as a freelance producer and occasional presenter for BBC World Service Television in London, he was plucked from obscurity by managing director Bob Wheaton to become a senior sports anchor on the re-launched BBC World in January 1995, making him the first Australian newsreader on the global news network.
After three years at the BBC, Jason moved to the United States in mid-1997. After working as a freelance reporter for BBC World Service and Denver local news station, KUSA-TV 9-News (NBC), Jason moved to Atlanta in early 1999 to take up a job at CNN International. In May 1999, after initially working as a news producer, Jason became the first Australian sports anchor on CNN International’s World Sport, the twice-daily, live program broadcast to more than 200 countries.
ESPN Career
In late 2001, Jason left CNN to become the senior news presenter at Asian network ESPN Star Sports, based in Singapore. As a host of daily news shows and live sporting events for five years, Jason became a well-known, foreign broadcaster, particularly in India, where the popularity of shows like Sportsline and SportsCenter India was supported by catchy Hindi-language commercials filmed in and around New Delhi. In 2003, SportsCenter Asia, hosted by Jason Dasey and Andrew Leci, was voted Best Sports Programme at the Asian Television Awards.
At the end of 2006, Jason moved from Singapore to work at ESPN’s world headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut as an anchor/reporter for yet more international versions of SportsCenter. For the Australia/New Zealand market, he presents SportsCenter with Travis Winks. In May 2007, he also began co-hosting a new version of SportsCenter, for Africa, the Middle East and the Caribbean, with former Sky (UK) presenter Georgie Bingham. He’s also one of the anchors on the web-cast, Soccernet SportsCenter and a columnist on the ESPNsoccernet website.
• Official Jason Dasey website: 1
• CNN profile: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/inside_game/archives/jason_dasey/index.html
• Interview at Indian TV website 2