Mobile ESPN mounts comeback as Verizon app

ESPN will resurrect its Mobile ESPN service via Verizon Wireless, this time as a straight-ahead content application and not as an MVNO. The multiyear exclusive deal between VZW and the self-proclaimed Worldwide Leader in Sports will extend beyond scores, news, video highlights and fantasy gaming services to include a separate MediaFLO broadcast channel featuring much of the same programming aired on ESPN's multitude of cable sports networks.

Mobile ESPN is expected to launch sometime this spring, with an unnamed VZW exec telling the AP the application will eventually be adapted for all V Cast-compatible handsets--"Not all people with V Cast-capable handsets use V Cast [and] we expect ESPN will drive additional adoption." The companies declined to disclose financial terms.

"ESPN has built the best wireless sports application of its kind and we are extremely pleased to offer our unique content and unmatched innovation through the nation's leading wireless carrier and data provider," said ESPN Enterprises executive VP Salil Mehta in a prepared statement. "For ESPN, this is the right strategy and the right carrier relationship to grow our business while serving millions of sports fans with the information they want, when and how they want it."

Parent company Disney launched Mobile ESPN in late 2005 in partnership with network provider Sprint, investing a combined $150 million in the MVNO and its sister service Disney Mobile, which remains a going concern. Disney shuttered Mobile ESPN in September after attracting fewer than 30,000 subscribers to the service. In stark contrast, Verizon Wireless boasts 59 million subscribers, about a third of them with V Cast handsets.

For more on the Mobile ESPN relaunch:
- read this release

Related articles:
- Game over for Mobile ESPN
- Disney hints at streaming ESPN to wireless devices