Walt Disney Co's ESPN sports television network is launching its own brand of mobile phone service in a deal with Sprint Corp intended to lure new users with sports news sent over a next-generation network, the companies said on Wednesday. Sprint would effectively rent out space on its network to ESPN, which would become a pioneer among US media companies aiming to take their wares to the smallest screen.
ESPN Mobile will start US service in 2005 with access to streaming sports audio and video as well as graphics and news, ESPN and Sprint said in a statement. They did not disclose financial terms.
Sprint, which will run the phone network while ESPN handles billing and sports content, said the link with Disney was another way to attract consumers to new high-end phones with Internet capabilities and to keep them once they switched.
"We believe ESPN's involvement in wireless will help stimulate even further consumer demand for high-speed data services," Sprint President and Chief Operating Officer Len Lauer said in a statement.
Sprint already rents network space to Qwest Communications and youth-oriented Virgin Mobile USA, a joint venture between Sprint and Richard Branson's Virgin, and AT&T Corp also plans to use Sprint's network to provide mobile services to its business customers. Such deals create so-called Mobile Virtual Network Operators, or MVNOs.
ESPN, which Disney considers its second-most important brand after the company name, already has led the film, television and theme park company into some technological forays, such as downloadable sports highlights for the Web with television-style clarity.
"Our goal is to extend our leadership and expertise in the two-screen environment, the television and computer, to a third screen that is becoming increasingly important to sports fans - the wireless device," George Bodenheimer, president of ESPN Inc and ABC Sports, said in a statement.