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Sprint picks up ESPN Mobile TV programming
Sprint got punked a bit when Verizon swooped in and scored mobile programming from the NFL, but they were awfully quick to hit back today with the announcement that they've just added ESPN Mobile TV into the Sprint TV mix -- granted, they're just playing catch-up to Verizon's VCAST TV service, but Sprint TV's got considerably wider distribution through the lineup, so this could be perceived as a bigger win. The companies are touting over 100 live events in March and April alone, and more than 800 during 2010 -- enough to ensure that you won't get a thing done as long as you've got your phone (and a spare battery or three) handy. The new channel's available immediately to Sprint TV subscribers.
A stroll through the MVNO graveyard
Back in the early days of Engadget, everyone -- including us -- thought mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) were totally poised to be the next big thing. And why not? You get to be a wireless carrier without having to operate your own infrastructure (which is by far the most expensive, difficult part). Just what the doctor ordered for the big, stodgy wireless carriers, each struggling to balance differentiating themselves while trapping their customers in their walled content and services gardens.What we got instead was failed business model after spectacular failed business model, leading to a domino effect of collapses that left just a precious few companies standing. Let's take a look at the carnage over on Engadget Mobile, shall we?
MobileESPN lives... on Verizon
MobileESPN is back from the dead sheriff, only this time as a zombied version of its former self. No longer an MVNO, the service for sportos is now limited exclusively to Verizon Wireless subscribers under a new multi-year deal. According to the AP, the deal is not yet finalized but should be announced sometime today with a service launch in "the coming months." And it's free for those of you already ponyed up for VZW's VCAST service and compatible phone. Verizon is also expected to announce later today that the ESPN channel on their MediaFLO-based VCAST TV service will feature much of the same programming you're already familiar with -- albeit, presumably in bite-sized chunks more suitable to TV on the go. This must be what the execs at Verizon had in mind when they passed on the iPhone. Braaaaains, give us your brains![Thanks, unfuccwittable]
Mobile ESPN: US out, India in
Disney's sports-oriented MVNO sitting atop Sprint's airwaves, Mobile ESPN, is nothing more than a memory for US customers. Having taken less than one full year to go from hot prospect to spectacular implosion, you might think that the folks in charge would've been left a bit too traumatized to even think about another launch. Alas, the service is getting a second chance at success in mobile-hungry India, though it'll take on less of an MVNO feel this time around. In fact, it's been relegated to nothing more than a WAP-based service offered through a variety of India's carriers, costing anywhere from Rs 50 to Rs 99 (a buck or two USD) per month. Good luck and godspeed, ESPN; we know you mean well.[Via MocoNews]
MobileESPN, R.I.P: 2005 - 2006
Whoa Nellie. The folks who scooped Disney's ESPN-branded cellphone service -- MobileESPN -- are now calling for "big changes" in the MVNO. According to Rafat Ali and Staci Kramer who cite "numerous sources," the doomed MobileESPN MVNO is set for "a phased winding down/transition, or getting sold" outright this week, just before Disney's fiscal year draws to a close. A spokeswoman for MobileESPN confirmed an announcement was coming, most likely on Thursday, and that staff would not be laid off this week contrary to rumors. Merrill Lynch already asked Disney to pull the plug in a research note published back in July estimating that MobileESPN had only snagged 30,000 of the 240,000 anticipated subscribers since its Superbowl launch representing a loss of some $135 million for The Mouse. All this is potentially bad news for the likes of Amp'd Mobile and Helio who may be in for an MVNO backlash on The Street where investor sentiment is already pretty low. Oh BJ, not you and the Bear too? Update: Just minutes after we posted the article above, Disney officially dropped the ax on MobileESPN, and the happiest place on earth is just a little bit gloomier today. According to an open letter on the MobileESPN homepage, cellular service will stop as of December 21st, although all that great content that you handful of subscribers have come to enjoy day in and day out will soon be available through one of the major carriers. Meanwhile, existing customers are free to drop the service anytime before the end of the year without penaltly, and once your bills are all paid up, the soon-to-be-defunct MVNO will refund the full cost of your handset. Epitaph: MobileESPN, we had such high hopes for ye, but your glass jaw made a first round KO inevitable. R.I.P, sweet, failed telecom experiment.[Via GigaOM]
ESPN Mobile to offer full-length college football games
Mobile ESPN might not have attracted quite the following they'd have hoped for so far, but that's certainly not to say they won't keep on keepin' on. In a deal with potentially broad-reaching implications for 3G data, MVNOs, and mobile entertainment in general, the sports-oriented carrier has announced plans to broadcast live college football games to their handsets, with as many as 25 planned for the 2006 season. Details are slim for the picking -- including the all-important question of pricing -- but if they can get this feature out the door for little or no additional cost on top of their basic service plans, we can definitely see this winning a few converts (not to mention flooding Sprint's EV-DO pipes in the process).[Via Moco News]
New MVNOs finding themselves in a world of hurt
It may not come as a shock to most of us, but the Wall Street Journal is reporting that recent MVNO start-ups Mobile ESPN and Amp'd are learning a hard lesson in market over-saturation, falling well short of the high expectations set for them by their parent companies and investors. Despite the hundreds of millions of dollars pumped into both operations -- well over $300 million between them -- neither had managed to muster even 10,000 subscribers through May. While Mobile ESPN is doubling back to retool its game plan (pun intended), Amp'd presses on, claiming they need more time to influence their young target demographic through advertising. Sports scores on hideous phones apparently don't get you as far as they used to, it seems.[Via MocoNews]
NFL draft on Sprint could indicate new trend
Because missing even a second of this year's football draft could wreak havoc on your performance in the coming season's fantasy leagues, Sprint is thoughtfully broadcasting the "action" live to subscribers of their Sprint TV NFL Mobile package. While this news in and of itself is rather mundane (especially to us non-football fans), the fact that Sprint has exclusive wireless rights to the draft while Monday Night Football rights-holder ESPN is barred from streaming the broadcast to its Mobile ESPN subscribers is rather interesting, and could be indicative of future trends. Although the demand for mobile TV is still definitely up in the air, might there be a day when enough rabid football fans have 3G-enabled cellphones to make it profitable for wireless carriers to bid against traditional networks on the games themselves, and broadcast them exclusively to a mobile audience?[Via Moco News]
Mobile ESPN slashes price of Sanyo MVP handset, plans more phones
Mobile ESPN has slashed the price of its sole handset offering, the Sanyo 9000-based MVP, bringing its price to just $99, down from the $499 that the MVNO charged when it launched in February. Mobile ESPN is expected to at least one more handset by June, with more to follow later in the year.
Mobile ESPN gets MLB
Not that it should come as much of a surprise that Mobile ESPN would secure content for one of the two biggest sports in the US, but they announced clip highlights, scoreboards, Fantasy team management, and team alerts for the 2006 Major League Baseball season. You know what you gotta do to get access, friends; we're thinking of joining up just to see the spectacle that is the Mets take on yet another season... on our phone.[Via Mobile Tracker]