ESPN Mobile Reaches The End Of The Road 125
fishdan writes "Sportsdot is reporting on the fact that people are apparently not interested in watching baseball (or any other sport) on a cell phone screen. ESPN Mobile is (ahem) pulling the plug after less than one year of service. Current subscribers will get content till the end of the year, and their handset purchase refunded. You have to wonder what other mobile content is going to have to be rethought." "Ahead of its time" might be one take on this as well. It'll be interesting to see when the time is right.
Not ahead of its time (Score:5, Interesting)
You have to wonder what other mobile content is going to have to be rethought." "Ahead of its time" might be one take on this as well.
Honestly, when I first saw the option to watch a sporting event on a cellphone I had two thoughts:
In the end, the idea had to be tried, but until people start opting for bigger phones, which is the opposite of the current trend, it just ain't gonna fly. Radio, with decent announcers is still your best mobile bet, get an AM radio.
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not that i watch sports much in the first place, but even trying to put myself in the place of a sports fan i can't see using a 1.5" screen to watch...
Screen and power problems are bogus. (Score:4, Interesting)
this won't catch on until we have HUDs with simulated 40" displays. ... i can't see using a 1.5" screen to watch...
You don't need some kind of 3D or other unobtainable tech to make this work. My $200 digital camera from Walmart has composite video out and plays movies fullscreen. They look as good as broadcast ever did. There is no reason you can't fit the same stuff in a cell phone. Using this existing technology you could, you know, SHARE the game with your friends.
Battery life might be a problem, so you can ship it with a good wall wart.
Viola, ESPN in your pocket. Anywere there's a TV and a wall outlet, you have the game. The night watchman, people who spend all of their time on the road and any sports fan who does not have a satelite TV equipped mobile home would like such a service.
Re:Screen and power problems are bogus. (Score:5, Funny)
Then why bother with the phone? You must be an engineer.
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If the TV is there, it's a reasonable assumption to make that the rest of it will be too.
You're being pedantic.
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My point exactly.
Uh... (Score:5, Funny)
I fail to see what classical musical instruments [wikipedia.org] and ESPN in a pocket have to do with each other.
Re:Uh... (Score:4, Funny)
I fail to see what classical musical instruments and ESPN in a pocket have to do with each other.
Try this [wikipedia.org].
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Pity I can't trump it ...
Anyway, there are always strings attached, and then they make off with your loot.
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Re:Not ahead of its time (Score:5, Insightful)
Instead of making things so general they should push high speed broadband to cell phones. Let people stream WHATEVER they want via them. Youtube, google video, divx files, etc.
THEN distributors can sell specialized content. Nobody is going to pay for a phone to watch football, then another to watch TV shows, then an ipod video to watch movies, etc, etc.
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Re:Not ahead of its time (Score:4, Interesting)
This is one of those things for people with entirely too much time on their hands, and way too much disposable income.
The streaming video was going to be a joke. The screen is too small to make it worth the effort.
The updates... How many updates are there that are worth it? I can maybe see a perfect game going into the 9th inning being something to turn the tube on for, but for the rest of it... Nothing that has that much build-up potential is going to be something you can alert for.
There was a similar kind of service they offer on pagers for fire department personal in some areas. Back in MD, you could get pager alerts for all major fire calls in the state sent to your pager. All the new kids becoming volunteers got it... At first. Then they dropped it because it was too damn annoying, especially since the odds were the call was nowhere CLOSE to where you worked/volunteered.
Only a hardcore gambler would have considered this thing. Sports fans in general? Well, we see the evidence. It couldn't get their interest.
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I don't see how the idea "had to be tried". If I had been sitting in a room full of people and they asked me if I thought it would score big numbers, I'd have laughed my ass off.
Undoubtably lots of people throughout history laughed their asses off before eventually saying, "well, damn, who'd a thunk it?!?" I think it had to be tried to see if people really would go for it. I remember a lot of skeptics about bottled water, but it sells and sells well. I think energy drinks are all marketing and bullshi
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I don't think paying $15 a month is insane. Perhaps the 6 million World of Warcraft people have too much time on their hands, true. But spending the $15 a month doesn't mean they have too much disposable income. Hell, $15 is practically ONE less movie a month (at least here in New York City).
Sitcoms, Reality TV, News etc... (Score:2)
Sports work much better with a 52" screen - everybody knows that.
It is also a cultural thing (Score:3, Insightful)
Some reasearchers have linked this to behaviour on subways etc. In some parts of the world, smart phones and mobile content are seen to be a useful way to kill some time on commuter trains. In other parts of the world it isn't.
Also, you need to be careful of what content you push. Some games (soccer etc) can probably be sent quite well in mobile form since you're probably only going to be looking at a few
Re:Not ahead of its time (Score:4, Funny)
So, TV on mobiles is a great idea. Go buy three of them.
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I couldn't agree more.
Let's see, I'm out of town and the game I just have to see is coming on. I can:
a) Go to Hooters and watch it, eat some wings and see some ass, or
b) I can sit at McDonalds, eat greasy fried, and watch it on a 1.5" screen.
Unless your dick is the same size as that cel phone screen, you are going to take option A.
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My personal opinion is that unlike other virtual operators, the ESPN service needed to be compelling enough to make people swit
Biggest problem with mobile content. (Score:1, Redundant)
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I have Sprint's "ultimate" package. It has two music channels (audio only), one NBC news channel that shows news clips updated periodically, Fox news live,and
Previews of movies, of tv shows, etc. The Talladega Nights preview has been on there forever. The entire Sony "channel" is movie previews. Plus, the previews aren't for content that you can actually watch on the phone.
There might be other content in there somewher
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Mobile Sports only (Score:2)
Its just Entertainment!
The time will be right when... (Score:5, Interesting)
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Re:The time will be right when... (Score:4, Insightful)
1. Most sports contests aren't during commute time.
2. Most non-commute, non-car journeys are short enough not to bother about what happens in the game. If you're THAT interested, you'd stay home or at the sports bar and watch it on the big screen with your buds.
3. Most commutes aren't THAT long. The 100 mile each way is the exception, not the rule. I can do without video for 15 minutes on my way home.
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Because noone watches then. If you build it, they will come.
2. Most non-commute, non-car journeys are short enough not to bother about what happens in the game. If you're THAT interested, you'd stay home or at the sports bar and watch it on the big screen with your buds.
Perhaps in America, however 1-2 hour commutes via train etc. are not uncommon in other countries.
3. Most commutes aren't THAT long. The 100 mile each way is the exception, not the rule. I ca
Re:The time will be right when... (Score:4, Informative)
ian
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The time I have seen it used, I think it was to watch TV dramas or variety shows, and not sports.
Thank God. (Score:1)
ESPN has been totally desperate to promote this thing. "ESPN Mobile brings you the newest ESPN Mobile alerts on your very own ESPN Mobile device enhanced with ESPN Mobile technology!"
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I agree. The ads were everywhere, and they were annoying as hell.
The service didn't look the least bit impressive, either. It was only a matter of time.
Death due to Proprietary Lockin (Score:5, Insightful)
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Cingular. if you were like me and signed up for the spider man promotion back in 2002 and get grandfathered into you 29.99 contract every year.
free roaming
free long distance
free web
unlimited nights and weekends.
and a free phone every year when i resign.
they have been trying to get me on a different contract for years he he.
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When the time is right... (Score:3, Interesting)
When cell phones have nuclear power cells that last for years without recharging, and built in projectors so that you can see video at a decent size (or wire up to your optic nerve for the same result.)
Alternatively, when prolonged cold weather causes Satan's pipes to burst.
Time is Tight (Score:2)
Goggles or whatever -- until then, fuggeddaboudit.
Composite video? (Score:2)
It works for my digital camera [slashdot.org] why not your cellphone.
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Sp? (Score:2)
Re:Sp? -- Yes, it's right (Score:2, Informative)
till1
-preposition
1. up to the time of; until: to fight till death.
2. before (used in negative constructions): He did not come till today.
3. near or at a specified time: till evening.
4. Chiefly Midland, Southern, and Western U.S.. before; to: It's ten till four on my watch.
5. Scot. and North England.
a. to.
b. unto.
-conjunctio
helio (Score:4, Funny)
I was going to make a comment about the Myspace Phone, but then I realized that's not really "content".
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I agree but I think you probably came up with an idea that would work. The myspace user base and the ringtone-buying teen phone users are probably a strongly overlapping demographic. The music and videos on myspace would do a lot better on a mobile phone screen than a sporting event would, and they go to the site every day anyway. Being able to see a version optimized for the mobile phone
Sports are a social event (Score:3, Insightful)
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Also, if I'm interested in a game I don't want to have to try and make out what's going on on a tiny little screen. I have a TV and I have a satellite dish. If I'm interested
Monkeys and typewriters (Score:2, Interesting)
The above adage seems a lot like finding successful business models on the internet; or how to make money from open source, etc. Trial and error are probably just as effective as spending a jillion dollars on a thorough business analysis. Most attempts will fail but a few will succeed big time. I would have predicted that Amazon would be a success but they spent a long time struggling to become profita
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That's only if the letters the monkeys type are uniformly distributed across the keyboard, which with monkeys won't be the case. More likely they'll simply smash at the keys, resulting in repeating patterns of letters occupying the same general area of the typewriter, which won't give you the works of Shakespeare no matter how many monkeys you have.
Now, if you took a random character generator and ran it
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-A
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Right target, wrong content (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Right target, wrong content (Score:4, Funny)
Will the time ever be right? (Score:1)
Could it be more of a branding / pricing issue? (Score:2, Interesting)
Wide Screen HDTV (Score:1)
Badly thought out (Score:1)
Ahead of its time???? (Score:2)
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-A
Step 2... question mark... (Score:5, Insightful)
--We're going to sell dog food... but... we're going to do it on the WEB!
--We're going to sell kid's toys... but... we're going to do it on the WEB!
--We're going to sell groceries... but... we're going to do it on the WEB!
Nowadays:
--We're going to broadcast sports... but... we're going to do it on CELL PHONES!
--We're going to bombard you with advertising... but... we're going to do it on CELL PHONES!
--We're going to let you browse the Web (and buy dog food, kids' toys, and groceries)... but... we're going to do it on CELL PHONES!
ESPN 360... (Score:2)
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Content Must Match the Medium... (Score:2)
Misleading summary (Score:5, Informative)
I blame the moral decay in society (Score:5, Funny)
SlingBox FTW (Score:1)
Sod the screen (Score:2)
Feed the output back up to a set of screen glasses which need to be significantly less geeky than these: http://tinyurl.com/mzx9n [tinyurl.com]
Not just a phone issue... (Score:3, Insightful)
They switched to using Microsoft's DRM on the feed, which means I can no longer use Firefox, nor my Mac to access the content. They made no announcement, I only found out why I couldn't connect by reading a Register article explaining the DRM switchover. Their website stated the wrong information for a long time after the switch - not sure if it is even correct now. They have no email based Customer Support. (the form on their website doesn't actually submit mail to them) They have phone based CS, but I live in Germany, so that's not an option.
The feed has become incredibly unstable, at the beginning of the season it was impossible to watch a complete game without interruption - It has marginally improved since then, but there are still frequent issues.
This year too it seems to be impossible for them to consistently get the aspect ratio correct on every game. Some games are broadcast in 16:9 but squashed to 4:3 by MLB.TV. It was fine before, so it's artifact, not a tech issue.
They now cut to a screen saver during commercial breaks. I actually miss the Aflac and Geico ads. They don't always come back to the game at the start of a half inning, sometimes it's in the middle of action. Worse, however, is that now they are broadcasting canned music in between innings. The same music. All. The. Time. If I ever hear Yellow Bird again.... it's playing right now...aaaarrrgh!!!
Seriously, they could just broadcast ads and save me money on my suscription, as well as my sanity.
And this is on a powerful PC with a fast DSL connection. So am I surprised that the mobile version is a dismal failure? Why no, not at all...
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The MLB.tv crap was just that. ESPN Mobile, I'll probably miss it a little - it was nice to get the news updates and scores. And the regular web access was particularly nice. I'm not a huge sport
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The saddest part of this is that MLB.TV is considered the best online broadcasting company for sports out there, so much so that they actually licens
the problem = hardware (Score:2)
Hmm, I guess I got it right for once (Score:3, Interesting)
I don't have the best track record. Here are some of my other ideas of what wouldn't take off...
When I was first introduced to Unix, I thought - this is dumb. It is way too complicated, who wants to remember all these commands? This was around 1990. 3 years later, I got my first job, and had to use Unix every day as we were on Unix servers. Here it is 13 years later and I am still using it, and Linux has been on my home computer for about 8 years. :)
I was introduced to SQL in one of my classes, and thought "this is weird. Select * from... huh? I don't get it. Who would ever want to use this, it is so cumbersome.
A college classmate did one of his senior projects on this burgeoning thing called (of all things) The World Wide Web. He was trying to explain it to me, and I thought it sounded kind of ... unnecessary. I mean, we had ftp, usenet, gopher, BBS... what else could you want?
If you had an awesome idea for a cell phone? (Score:2)
How much did this cost? (Score:2, Insightful)
Phone Size (screen too) is the overall problem (Score:3, Insightful)
That and, I'm not sure on the price, but with the way companies ass rape you for the costs of something as simple as text messages, live tv coverage of a sports game on your cellphone sounds uber fucking expensive. Again I don't know the price but if I had to guess, I'm sure Motorola, Verison, Sprint etc are watering at the mouth in terms of what they could charge for such content onto your phone.
And is it just me, or should we really be concentrating on more important things? Like, better reception nation wide. Making less areas where you completely drop your signal at random, or really bad reception all the time? Developing longer lasting batteries that don't die out in a few hours after being fully charged, and by die out I mean not inconstant use but the phone is "on" aka waiting to be called or call out. How about making phones and minutes more affordable? (Yes I know there are several pay as you go services but for people on fixed incomes or limited incomes thats still not a viable option and cellphones can be life savers in emerganices).
Interesting given how well MobiTV has done ... (Score:1)
How many subscribers has MobiTV added in the last year? Over a millon? Over two million? That is about double what Blackberry has done, which is everyone's darling mobile service.
I think this market has a long ways to grow ... but not with proprietary device/carrier lock in.
The problem is clips and not full feature video (Score:2, Informative)
The phones that the common folk in America tend to have are the free ones or the heavily subsidized phones that have small screens and are in portrait format. Another issue is variable levels of bandwidth and cost of having the additional data plan if one is required for video
Re:Side note (Score:1)
Of course it failed (Score:1)
Ok, so I lied. Golf is actually the worst and most boring sport to watch, but baseball is right up t
Hopefully never! (Score:1)
""Ahead of its time" might be one take on this as well. It'll be interesting to see when the time is right.
Hopefully, that day will never come. Don't call me luddite yet, I'm certainly not, but there are uses, and there are abuses of a technology. It's already kind of hateful now, to walk around and see everyone with their earphones plugged in and their sight lost in the void.
Video clips on phones - unreliable, waste of money (Score:2)
I wouldn't want to watch sports on any size screen (Score:2)
Sports fan (Score:2)
Hate You.
COST CAUSED this one! (Score:1)
I can watch TV on my CELL.... Its GREAT... but unless I pay my provider 10-20 extra a month flat rate, then it costs my $50 a meg to watch over their airwaves. If the cell providers werent so greedy, and made it affordable for the masses, ESPN and all the others would be around for a good long time!
Thats my take
Clarification (Score:2)
Just to clarify, I don't think ESPN Mobile even offered its users a live ESPN feed. It was more a way to get scores, stats, and updates. (I'm reasonably sure that's correct; I've only heard the plugs seven freaking times during each SportsCenter broadcast for the past year.) I'm sure there were video clips and such, but I don't think you could watch a whole Monday Night Football broadcast on the thing.
I used to use a watchman... (Score:2)
I used to use a Watchman (portable personal TV) from time to time. It clearly wasn't a replacement for real TV, and it wasn't comfortable for extended viewings.
What did make it worth the hassle was that it could recieve normal TV. Can cell phones recieve normal TV?