ESPN recently ended its highly touted run as a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO)—a company that buys network capacity from a network operator to offer its own branded mobile subscriptions and value-added services—choosing instead to focus on a broader licensing model that frees up its content to be viewed by cellular subscribers on multiple mobile service providers.
Mobile ESPN, which launched in February 2006, achieved only slightly more than 10% of its 240,000-subscriber goal. The biggest issue, according to Mobile ESPN senior vice president Manish Jha, was consumer discomfort with having to shift from one cellular phone service provider to another just to view ESPN content.
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