ESPN Mobile

ESPN MVP was a cellular phone-based sports information service offered by ESPN and Verizon Wireless on feature phones. It was carried on the Verizon Wireless network after it was relaunched in May 2007 as the ESPN MVP, and was operated until 2013, when smartphones with mobile web and application access had long supplanted limited feature phones. Previously known as Mobile ESPN, it was an Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) run by Disney using Sprint's EVDO wireless network from November 25, 2005, until December 2006. The service was widely considered overpriced and a failure.

Its key feature was a sports application that could access news, highlights, and scores. The Java-based application was able to provide real-time scores, such that the phone was frequently five or more seconds ahead of a television broadcast in updating scores. The application was also integrated with a SMS service, so that the user was able to receive an alert whenever a favorite team scores or some other newsworthy event occurs.

The content was managed by an editorial team that created original content and repurposed content from ESPN.com's web site to fit the phone format. The majority of content on ESPN.com was also available on Mobile ESPN. On-air mentions of ESPN Mobile during programming such as SportsCenter, especially phone-in segments (which featured graphics of Mobile ESPN handsets rather than the common genericized renderings of mobile phones used by most news organizations), suggested that the network's on-air staff was contractually bound to use it.

On September 2, 2006, Mobile ESPN streamed the first live sporting event ever delivered to a mobile phone in the United States. Fans watched live coverage from Ann Arbor as Michigan defeated Vanderbilt, 27-7.

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