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Disney-owned MVNO shuts up shop
The End...

By Reuters

Published: Friday 29 September 2006

Walt Disney's ESPN cable sports channel said on Thursday it will shut down its Mobile ESPN wireless telephone business operations later this year and aims to license the brand to existing mobile providers.

Owners of Mobile ESPN phones will receive a full refund when they settle their final Mobile ESPN bill and customers who choose to stop Mobile ESPN service will be released from current contract obligations, the company said.

Mobile ESPN was one of the most ambitious mobile virtual network - or MVNO - projects to be launched amid a broad move to provide branded wireless services to niche markets.

MVNOs rent space from wireless network operators such as Sprint Nextel. Other MVNOs include youth-oriented services Amp'd Mobile and Helio.

The failure of Mobile ESPN doesn't mean all MNVO services are doomed, Jaimee Minney, an analyst with M:Metrics Data, noted in an emailed comment on Thursday.

Minney wrote: "It's important that we do not overreact to this. In the end, asking consumers to view a brand with a connotation as purely a media company as a provider of telephony is too great of a conceptual leap. Brands like Virgin, a lifestyle brand, or brands that are already providers of communications services, such as a cable company or ISP, stand a much better chance as an MVNO, as do companies that are pure-play MVNOs."

M:Metrics research showed that of the 26.7 million people who accessed news and information on a mobile device in July, 6.1 per cent (11.5 million people, most of them males) focused on sports information.

Salil Mehta, ESPN Enterprises executive vice president, said in a statement: "With a redefined approach we have a greater opportunity to reach millions of fans while achieving our strategic and financial goals."

Shares of Disney were down 10 cents at $30.94 in midday trading on Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange.