November 26, 2005
Sports in your pocket
ESPN is betting that its own cell phone service will bring the next big thing in sports. CNN reports.
"ESPN on Friday started selling its own branded cell phone on its Web site. The Mobile ESPN phone is programmed to make it easy to watch video highlights and get scores, as well as updates and alerts about games in progress. The phones go on sale in stores nationwide on Feb. 5 – Super Bowl Sunday.
... Even if you don't have the ESPN phone, you can visit its mobile Web site for scores and articles, as well as watch its sports highlights on the millions of cell phones already capable of getting video.
... More 4 million unique visitors are already accessing ESPN's Web site by mobile device each month, or about four times the average audience that tunes into the network's late-night SportsCenter show.
"We're producing two to three hours of video every day for that service," said Manish Jha, the senior vice president and general manager of Mobile ESPN.
... Experts say that sports will probably be one of the major drivers for people signing up for wireless broadcasts.
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