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]

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]

It may not come as a shock to most of us, but the Wall Street Journal is reporting that recent MVNO start-ups Mobile ESPN and Amp'd are learning a hard lesson in market over-saturation, falling well short of the high expectations set for them by their parent companies and investors. Despite the hundreds of millions of dollars pumped into both operations -- well over $300 million between them -- neither had managed to muster even 10,000 subscribers through May. While Mobile ESPN is doubling back to retool its game plan (pun intended), Amp'd presses on, claiming they need more time to influence their young target demographic through advertising. Sports scores on hideous phones apparently don't get you as far as they used to, it seems.

[Via MocoNews]

Because missing even a second of this year's football draft could wreak havoc on your performance in the coming season's fantasy leagues, Sprint is thoughtfully broadcasting the "action" live to subscribers of their Sprint TV NFL Mobile package. While this news in and of itself is rather mundane (especially to us non-football fans), the fact that Sprint has exclusive wireless rights to the draft while Monday Night Football rights-holder ESPN is barred from streaming the broadcast to its Mobile ESPN subscribers is rather interesting, and could be indicative of future trends. Although the demand for mobile TV is still definitely up in the air, might there be a day when enough rabid football fans have 3G-enabled cellphones to make it profitable for wireless carriers to bid against traditional networks on the games themselves, and broadcast them exclusively to a mobile audience?

[Via Moco News]

Mobile ESPN has slashed the price of its sole handset offering, the Sanyo 9000-based MVP, bringing its price to just $99, down from the $499 that the MVNO charged when it launched in February. Mobile ESPN is expected to at least one more handset by June, with more to follow later in the year.

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]