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Mobile ESPN to Halt Service by Year’s End

7:00 am on September 29, 2006 | Category: Business, Cell Phones, Telecom Services, Wireless

The Disney-owned cable sports channel, ESPN, announced yesterday that it will shut down its MVNO wireless business, in favor of licensing its brand to larger carriers.

Mobile ESPN users will see the cost of their phones fully refunded on their final bills, and will be released from all contractual obligations, the company assured, when it announced that the service would cease to be available by the end of this year.

In its brief time as a Mobile Virtual Network Operator, ESPN has rented airwaves from wireless carriers, and used them to provide customers with basic voice service, bundled with a variety of ESPN video and multimedia content.

M:Metrics Data analyst, Jaimee Minney, reminds us that the failure of Mobile ESPN doesnâ€™t mean that the companyâ€™s mobile content services are doomed along with it.

“It’s important that we do not overreact to this,” Minney wrote in an email. “In the end, asking consumers to view a brand with a connotation as purely a media company as a provider of telephony is too great of a conceptual leap. Brands like Virgin, a lifestyle brand, or brands that are already providers of communications services, such as a cable company or ISP, stand a much better chance as an MVNO, as do companies that are pure-play MVNOs.”

The popular sports channelâ€™s executive vice president, Salil Mehta, confirms that Mobile ESPNâ€™s content will live on to be offered by fully-fledged wireless carriers.

“With a redefined approach we have a greater opportunity to reach millions of fans while achieving our strategic and financial goals,” Mehta commented.

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