I read on another site that it wasnt but like 28,000 people who had the phone. lol
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http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=industryNews&storyID=2006-09-29T025720Z_01_WNAS7759_RTRIDST_0_INDUSTRY-ESPN-DC.XML&WTmodLoc=EntNewsIndustry_C1_%5BFeed%5D-2

Game over for Mobile ESPN

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - In a rare misstep for the self-proclaimed "worldwide leader in sports," ESPN said Thursday it would shut down its Mobile ESPN wireless telephone service by year's end because the much-hyped venture couldn't bring in enough subscribers.

Mobile ESPN is a mobile virtual network operator, a service that uses a cellular phone's network to deliver content to a subscriber base hungry for its multimedia offerings, in this case sports. But Mobile ESPN senior vp and general manager Manish Jha said the company learned that most wireless customers don't change their service based on the entertainment options. Mobile ESPN customers had to pay as much as $199 for a specially designed handset, in addition to paying for the service.

"Getting that paradigm to change is really hard, and with the level of investment that we would have to continue to make in (Mobile ESPN), our comfort level wasn't there," Jha said. ESPN's parent, the Walt Disney Co., recently disclosed that it spent about $150 million on its mobile efforts, though not just Mobile ESPN.



Instead, ESPN will market its service -- which had won awards for innovation and garnered critical acclaim -- to wireless providers as an add-on service. Jha said the goal is to make the new service as much like the current Mobile ESPN as possible.

The service will continue through year's end, and Mobile ESPN will refund the purchase price of the phones because they will be useless once the service shuts down. Only about a third of Mobile ESPN's 100-member work force, based in New York as well as Bristol, Conn., will remain with the unit in its new incarnation as a content provider.

The decision received a favorable reaction on Wall Street, where some suggested its time was short. Merrill Lynch analyst Jessica Reif Cohen said in a report Thursday that it is a positive step for ESPN and Disney. Shares of Disney ended down 11 cents at $30.93 on the New York Stock Exchange.

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