Disney Enables ESPN Fans to Dial In

The Los Angeles Times pens another article on the launch of the Mobile ESPN MVNO by the folks at Disney. John Strand at Strand Consulting said, "Disney is looking for a way to grow its top line. And mobile phones are a huge market."

Regarding the hefty pricing, Marina Amoroso at Yankee Group, said "Less than 1% of the market will pay more than $199 for a phone. They are really going after a very small market with that type of pricing."

According to Amoroso, within five years, "virtual networks will capture about 14% of all wireless subscribers, or about 29 million customers, and generate annual revenue of about $10.7 billion."

Yankee Group analyst Linda Barrabee added that in the U.S., the top network operators, Verizon, Sprint, Cingular and T-Mobile USA, "control about 80% of the content distributed on the phones." She said, "The challenge not only for ESPN but also other entities trying to dance into this space is to convince customers to move to a new service. How do you lure those folks away? Well, ESPN already has an existing base. They've got the brand and the content."