R.I.P. ESPN Mobile

[Glenn]

Maybe they didn't promote it enough?

I'm guessing that a few heads have rolled over this one.

http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/...a/15637397.htm

ESPN's mobile service collapses

Company to partner with major carriers to offer its service; move sends shockwaves through niche cell phone industry

By Bruce Meyerson
ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK - The planned shutdown of the Mobile ESPN cell phone service marks the first major bust in a rush of specialized wireless ventures targeting niche audiences who contend they are underserved by the Cingulars and Verizons of the world.

Mobile ESPN had made the same argument since its launch less than a year ago. But in announcing the decision Thursday to close its service at year-end, the company essentially said it will be joining the enemy.

The new plan is to cut deals with major wireless carriers so they can offer the flashy multimedia features and content developed by Mobile ESPN to an established customer base of millions.

Still, ESPN was quick to stress that its change in strategy had no bearing on Disney Mobile, another ambitious foray into the cellular market by parent company Walt Disney Co. that recently was officially launched.

Disney disclosed it has so far invested a combined $150 million in developing Mobile ESPN and Disney Mobile, which are two of the highest-profile and most heavily marketed efforts to create what's known as an "MVNO," or mobile virtual network operator.

An MVNO doesn't have its own wireless network. Instead, it puts its own brand on another company's wireless network operator's service -- for Mobile ESPN it was Sprint Nextel Corp. -- paying that company to connect calls and deliver content.

Globally, there already were more than 175 MVNO brands either launched or planned as of April of this year, according to the research firm ARCchart.

Some of the new brands stress lower prices and prepaid offerings for users who can't meet credit requirements. Others focus on immigrant communities, providing cheaper international calls or screen graphics and customer service in another language. For Amp'd Mobile and Helio, it's the youth market.

Many analysts are skeptical whether it's a business model that can succeed for the vast majority of these ventures given the marketing muscle of the national players.

That a brand as popular and well-funded as ESPN could not make it work adds to that doubt, particularly because Mobile ESPN developed a uniquely sophisticated mobile service compared with the content offered on regular cell phones.

The service has signed up only tens of thousands of subscribers since it launched in late 2005 and began advertising early this year, with commercials appearing regularly on ESPN's cable TV broadcasts. That struggle contrasts sharply with ESPN's success as a provider of news on cell phones, where it ranks third among mobile news sources, trailing only CNN and Yahoo, according to M:Metrics.

[Uncle Mxy]

You're not going to make money just by co-branding with a powerful brand. The monthly incremental costs won't be worth the content you get, unless you position it not so much as a moneymaker, but a way to enhance brand recognition (or in ESPN's case, pour concrete atop it).

Instead, you have to make it worthwhile to buy as a result of the phone. Barring sports ringtones and selling of sporting events video for those few people who could take advantage of it from their cells, the MVNO exercise isn't worth a lot -except- to promote the brand.

You want an MVNO opportunity? Look at eBay/HSN/QVC. Look at services for realtors and other inherently "road warrior" occupations that employ lots of people. Look at AARP (how -do- cell phones play with an America getting progressively older). In general, position yourself as an enabling technology. Make your cell phone a tool to enable people to better do what they'd want to do anyway, given the context of the situations where you want to work from your cell phone.

[Hermy]

^ 10/10.

[darkobetterthanmelo]

damn i gotta get a new phone