Microsoft-CrowdStrike outage, explained: Why ESPN couldn't air 'SportsCenter' due to global disruption

A global technology outage prevented ESPN from airing its signature news program Friday.

As a result of the overnight outage, ESPN could not air "SportsCenter" on the morning of Friday, July 19. Instead, the network aired ESPN Radio's "Unsportsmanlike" on ESPN and ESPN2 while it attempted to navigate the issue.

"A Microsoft outage happened at about 1 o'clock in the morning Eastern Time," ESPN's Freddie Coleman said to Courtney Cronin during the program. "And Courtney, all hell has broken loose with Microsoft and having everything pretty much shut down until they try to fix this problem."

What led to ESPN's inability to air SportsCenter? Here is more on the outage and how it has affected entities worldwide.

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Microsoft-CrowdStrike outage, explained

The global technology outage is at least partly a result of a software update issued by CrowdStrike on Friday, CNN reports .

CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz shared a statement to X (formerly Twitter) at 5:45 a.m. Friday. Within Kurtz's statement was an explanation that the outage stemmed from "a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts" adding that Mac and Linux users were not impacted.

Kurtz added that it was not a security issue or cyberattack and that a fix had been deployed.

As a result of the outage, flights, banks, companies and other media outlets were disrupted. ESPN and SportsCenter's reliance on Microsoft systems resulted in an inability to air Friday morning.

What is CrowdStrike?

CrowdStrike is a cybersecurity firm based in Austin, Texas.

Founded in 2011, CrowdStrike launched in February 2012 and has risen to prominence as a cybersecurity technology provider. Here is more from the company's website :

CrowdStrike has redefined security with the world’s most advanced cloud-native platform that protects and enables the people, processes and technologies that drive modern enterprise. CrowdStrike secures the most critical areas of risk – endpoints and cloud workloads, identity, and data – to keep customers ahead of today’s adversaries and stop breaches.