ESPN is redesigning its homepage in the hope of making it more appealing to both advertisers and consumers, following a recent trend that has seen Yahoo, AOL and MySpace redesign their hubs to increase ad revenue.

ESPN.com attracts the young male audience that advertisers covet, and the redesigned website will have eight advertising options, up from three on the previous incarnation of the website, according to The New York Times.

Nearly half of the total minutes spent watching sports videos online occur on ESPN.com, according to Nielsen, so the redesigned website will also introduce a new video advertising option with movie studios in mind.

ESPN's thought process behind the redesign is to capture more casual sports fans. To do this, the sports behemoth is reducing the number of links on its portal to make the site less overwhelming for visitors. The plan should also increase the amount of time hardcore fans spend on the site, giving ESPN the ability to charge higher ad rates. Disney, ESPN's parent company, indicated that poor ad sales at the sports channel were one reason profit growth has slowed among its media networks.