Mobile ESPN to shut down
Cory Bergman September 28th, 2006
An update on last night’s post that big news was coming with Mobile ESPN. Sure enough, Disney has decided to shut down the service later this year and license the brand to existing mobile providers. Subscribers will receive full refunds. The mobile virtual network, or MVNO, was likely the most ambitious ever launched by a media company. “As the business developed, we confronted a very competitive sales environment for our MVNO while at the same time attracting significant interest from others to license distribution of Mobile ESPN,” wrote ESPN head George Bodenheimer in a staff memo. Mobile ESPN had been criticized for analysts for not meeting subscriber goals. Press release announcing the change…
PRESS RELEASE — ESPN will cease its Mobile ESPN MVNO operations later this year but remains committed to growing its presence in the wireless industry through licensing its critically acclaimed Mobile ESPN application to existing service providers.
Mobile ESPN’s wireless voice and data services, including the Mobile ESPN sports content, will remain active for current customers until at least December 31, 2006. Current customers will continue to receive complete billing and customer care support during the transition. Future sales of Mobile ESPN handsets and service plans are discontinued immediately.
ESPN, which has licensed content to multiple wireless carriers for more than a decade and is the number one wireless Internet sports content site in the U.S. with eight million unique visitors a month, will also continue its successful Mobile ESPN Publishing business.
“Our MVNO effort created a tremendous wireless asset widely recognized for quality and innovation, and as a result we have been approached by well-entrenched carriers about a licensing model. We have decided to pursue it,” said Salil Mehta, executive vice president, ESPN Enterprises. “With a redefined approach we have a greater opportunity to reach millions of fans while achieving our strategic and financial goals.”
Continued Mehta: “ESPN is now able to take advantage of market opportunities that simply did not exist with our content before we built the MVNO. We remain committed to serving fans in the wireless arena.”
Customers who purchased Mobile ESPN phones will receive a full refund of their purchase price upon settlement of their final Mobile ESPN bill. Before the end of the year, Mobile ESPN will contact all customers with details about future service options to assist in the transition to the new home of Mobile ESPN. Customers electing to discontinue Mobile ESPN service will be released from current contract obligations without early termination penalty.
Mobile ESPN wireless network voice and data services are provided on the Nationwide Sprint PCS Network. High-speed data services are available in the Sprint wireless high-speed data (EVDO) coverage areas. Where available, “EVDO” provides broadband-like download speeds, enabling extremely fast access to Mobile ESPN’s sports content, Internet searching and certain downloads.
12 Comments Add your own
1. thomas | September 28th, 2006 at 1:10 pm
should we be suprised by this? everyone knew this was coming and the person at ESPN who thought this would work should be fired.
2. Charlie Sierra | September 28th, 2006 at 1:44 pm
Ditto that.
Just look at the average viewership on ESPN channels. Its not impressive. Aside arm-twisting the MSOs, ESPN is not that big a deal, especially whenever the leagues figure out how to capture the additional digital revenues.
Anyway if Iger let this thing go on much longer he’d have to take the blame for it, as it is Isner has already retired. The timing was perfecto.
3. Troy | September 28th, 2006 at 3:54 pm
I’m consistently surprised at the enormous risks these deep pocket corporations keep taking. The cool factor in the board rooms must somehow overpower the logic required to formulate short and long-term revenue models.
I have to agree, many of us saw this coming and why take a double hit on buying the programming rights for Monday Night Football & a massive loss on this initiative all within 2 years?
Is it greed?
4. Jason | September 28th, 2006 at 11:58 pm
I’m surprised that it didn’t do as well as projected, but when considering Mobile ESPN’s coverage wasn’t nationwide, the price of service plans, limited handsets, and customers locked into their existing contracts with other wireless providers, it kinda makes sense.
5. Jason | September 28th, 2006 at 11:59 pm
What’s truly tragic is that this happens right at the beginning of football season, the one key sports that could have saved it. Baseball was great as an introduction and the slow pace and number of games, but it stagnated. Alerts and fantasy tips and whatnot for pigskin could have been a killer app within the killer app.
6. mediaburn | September 29th, 2006 at 10:27 am
I agree with Jason. I’m still surprised they are sticking with Insider. I can’t believe I’m missing that much by going to other sports sites to fill in the content gaps.
7. Anonymous | September 29th, 2006 at 10:57 am
I think they overestimated how interested people were in hearing from their pundits and talking heads. If you have a video/internet enabled phone, you can get sports news, scores, stats, etc. from anywhere. And you could do it a heck of a lot cheaper elsewhere than by going with ESPN’s plans. Was it just me or where they outrageously expensive?
The funny thing is, there are new wireless sports content packages launched this week from SportsLine and Sprint, even as Mobile ESPN was shutting down.
8. chris | September 30th, 2006 at 5:36 am
it seems to me that MobileEspn is breaking the 2 year contract they had most of us aggree to. If a customer broke the contract the customer would be forced to pay 250.00, should that mean that since MobileESPN is not honoring the 2 year contract that they should be liable to a simmilar monentary loss/fee as well. i wonder if a small claims court would rule in favor of the consumer for a claim against mobileEspn.
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10. Disney Mobile disconnecte&hellip | October 1st, 2007 at 10:19 pm
[…] Disney is dumping its Disney Mobile product - saying the model was hard to sustain in the current market. The service used a private carrier and pasted on the Disney brand, and added special features like extra security and parental controls. This is Disney’s second flop in the mobile realm. A year ago the company cut its ESPN Mobile product for similar reasons. The Disney Mobile service will end on December 31st. […]
11. wfstuff.info » Disn&hellip | October 1st, 2007 at 10:46 pm
[…] Disney is dumping its Disney Mobile product - saying the model was hard to sustain in the current market. The service used a private carrier and pasted on the Disney brand, and added special features like extra security and parental controls. This is Disney’s second flop in the mobile realm. A year ago the company cut its ESPN Mobile product for similar reasons. The Disney Mobile service will end on December 31st. […]
12. lucy | January 19th, 2008 at 4:57 am
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