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Mobile ESPN’s plug has been pulled after less than a year in the marketplace - and months of rate adjustments and losses of at least $25 million.
Parent Walt Disney is discontinuing the Mobile ESPN service and focusing instead on licensing the Mobile ESPN software application to other carriers, so that many features of the service will become available on more phones, reports AdAge (via MarketingVox). 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, the company said in a statement.
The move seems to have dampened euphoria over MVNOs, or mobile virtual network operators; major marketers were thought likely to be among those to offer their own branded telephone service. As an MVNO, Mobile ESPN used the Sprint Nextel network - and handled its own marketing, customer service and distribution.
About 14 million of the nation’s 220 million mobile-phone subscribers are customers of MVNOs, according to Yankee Group analyst Marina Amoroso; Virgin Mobile is among the largest with 4 million subscribers.
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