ESPN Mobile Phones Part Two….

According to MediaPost, "ESPN WILL OFFER UP TO 25 college football games live a month on its consumer mobile service throughout the college season starting Sept. 4."

Hmm…I know that ESPN is putting a plethora of advertising and marketing dollars to gain a significant share of the mobile services’ market, but is it really worth it? How many people do you know who watch videos on their phones?

"Linda Barrabee, program manager for U.S. wireless research at Yankee Group, said that live sports programming on ESPN Mobile, which runs on the Sprint PCS network, would help differentiate the service from competitors. Aside from live audio streaming of baseball games through Major League Baseball, there is little sports or any other kind of live programming for mobile phones today, she said. Only about 1 percent of wireless users subscribe to any data service that includes mobile video, according to Yankee Group research."

Um…according to Yankee Group, "only about 1 percent of wireless users subscribe to any data service that includes mobile video."
While would you spend some much time and money on one percent of the wireless users? Most people have access to televisions unless you are in the woods or out in a boat. In those places, you have to worry to see if you have enough service. I understand this one percent will grow over time. Is it worth hemorrhaging money to wait for more sports fans to purchase this service?

ESPN, at this point, reminds me a lot of Microsoft. They are the 800-pound guerilla in the room. Sometimes their products are innovative and helpful to consumers. I just don’t see a lot of people paying the money to ensure they can watch college football games on their phones.