ESPN Broadband is a business unit of the ESPN company - itself a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Company. This unit focuses on providing sports content to users over a high speed internet connection. It is divided into five areas: ESPN Motion, ESPN3, ESPN Online Games, IpTV and ESPN PPV. By providing content online this service is able to allow users to watch sports games and sports related content such as ESPN documentaries and the SportsCenter TV show. This is one of the ways in which new media and broadband internet are beginning to compete with the Television industry in general, changing from a force fed consumption model of entertainment, to one that allows user generated play lists, interactivity, and custom content.
ESPN Motion is the all access portion of ESPN's broadband content. All users can view video on this player at ESPN.com.
ESPN3, originally known as ESPN360, is the subscription portion of ESPN broadband. It has its own URL, [ESPN3.com]. It is not a typical subscription site in that a user is unable to pay for the subscription themselves. Instead, a user's Internet service provider, such as Verizon, provides them with access to ESPN3.
ESPN Online Games are a collection of sports-themed internet video games available on the ESPN3 broadband internet channel. There are currently two collections of games. The first is “Arena Games,” which features a home run derby style baseball game; a 3-point shooter basketball game and Throwdown, a four-round boxing game. The second section is “Bar Sports” which features air hockey, bar curling and a coin toss game. The games are played at espngames.com