If you thought Verizon's launch lineup for VCAST TV was a bit thin, don't fret -- MediaFLO's got bandwidth to spare -- but you might get extra channels spoon-fed to you one special at a time. Subscribers may have already noticed that EXPN has already showed up on that tiny screen of theirs, offering up all the X Games 13 coverage they can handle from July 22 through August 7. The extra channel supplements X Games coverage on ESPN Mobile TV (one of VCAST TV's permanent channels), so between the two, mobile warriors shouldn't miss a minute of the action.

[Via mocoNews]

ESPN got driven clear out of the MVNO game, but it wants another go at winning the hearts and minds of US mobile subscribers -- this time through a partnership with Verizon. "ESPN MVP" will become a new standard feature of Verizon's VCAST offering at no additional cost, offering a slew of sporty content: news, stats, configurable alerts for scores and news, editorial content, fantasy team management, and quite a bit more. It'll even feature ESPN's instantly recognizable "Bottomline," a scrolling ticker of updated news and scores. Look for it to hit tomorrow on the LG VX8300, Chocolate, and VX8600, alongside Motorola's V3c, V3m, and K1m; additional compatible models will follow in the "coming months."

[Thanks, anonymous tipster]

MobileESPN is back from the dead sheriff, only this time as a zombied version of its former self. No longer an MVNO, the service for sportos is now limited exclusively to Verizon Wireless subscribers under a new multi-year deal. According to the AP, the deal is not yet finalized but should be announced sometime today with a service launch in "the coming months." And it's free for those of you already ponyed up for VZW's VCAST service and compatible phone. Verizon is also expected to announce later today that the ESPN channel on their MediaFLO-based VCAST TV service will feature much of the same programming you're already familiar with -- albeit, presumably in bite-sized chunks more suitable to TV on the go. This must be what the execs at Verizon had in mind when they passed on the iPhone. Braaaaains, give us your brains!

[Thanks, unfuccwittable]

Disney's sports-oriented MVNO sitting atop Sprint's airwaves, Mobile ESPN, is nothing more than a memory for US customers. Having taken less than one full year to go from hot prospect to spectacular implosion, you might think that the folks in charge would've been left a bit too traumatized to even think about another launch. Alas, the service is getting a second chance at success in mobile-hungry India, though it'll take on less of an MVNO feel this time around. In fact, it's been relegated to nothing more than a WAP-based service offered through a variety of India's carriers, costing anywhere from Rs 50 to Rs 99 (a buck or two USD) per month. Good luck and godspeed, ESPN; we know you mean well.

[Via MocoNews]

Whoa Nellie. The folks who scooped Disney's ESPN-branded cellphone service -- MobileESPN -- are now calling for "big changes" in the MVNO. According to Rafat Ali and Staci Kramer who cite "numerous sources," the doomed MobileESPN MVNO is set for "a phased winding down/transition, or getting sold" outright this week, just before Disney's fiscal year draws to a close. A spokeswoman for MobileESPN confirmed an announcement was coming, most likely on Thursday, and that staff would not be laid off this week contrary to rumors. Merrill Lynch already asked Disney to pull the plug in a research note published back in July estimating that MobileESPN had only snagged 30,000 of the 240,000 anticipated subscribers since its Superbowl launch representing a loss of some $135 million for The Mouse. All this is potentially bad news for the likes of Amp'd Mobile and Helio who may be in for an MVNO backlash on The Street where investor sentiment is already pretty low. Oh BJ, not you and the Bear too?

Update: Just minutes after we posted the article above, Disney officially dropped the ax on MobileESPN, and the happiest place on earth is just a little bit gloomier today. According to an open letter on the MobileESPN homepage, cellular service will stop as of December 21st, although all that great content that you handful of subscribers have come to enjoy day in and day out will soon be available through one of the major carriers. Meanwhile, existing customers are free to drop the service anytime before the end of the year without penaltly, and once your bills are all paid up, the soon-to-be-defunct MVNO will refund the full cost of your handset. Epitaph: MobileESPN, we had such high hopes for ye, but your glass jaw made a first round KO inevitable. R.I.P, sweet, failed telecom experiment.

[Via GigaOM]

Mobile ESPN might not have attracted quite the following they'd have hoped for so far, but that's certainly not to say they won't keep on keepin' on. In a deal with potentially broad-reaching implications for 3G data, MVNOs, and mobile entertainment in general, the sports-oriented carrier has announced plans to broadcast live college football games to their handsets, with as many as 25 planned for the 2006 season. Details are slim for the picking -- including the all-important question of pricing -- but if they can get this feature out the door for little or no additional cost on top of their basic service plans, we can definitely see this winning a few converts (not to mention flooding Sprint's EV-DO pipes in the process).

[Via Moco News]

Not that it should come as much of a surprise that Mobile ESPN would secure content for one of the two biggest sports in the US, but they announced clip highlights, scoreboards, Fantasy team management, and team alerts for the 2006 Major League Baseball season. You know what you gotta do to get access, friends; we're thinking of joining up just to see the spectacle that is the Mets take on yet another season... on our phone.

[Via Mobile Tracker]