Verizon & Sprint Battle On Sports: NFL & ESPN

• Rob Jackson
• 15 years ago

For quite awhile, Sprint has been the exclusive partner of the NFL will their NFL Mobile application available on Sprint handsets. In conjunction with their Mobile TV services, fans and subscribers could tune into exclusive content, live updates, video highlights and a whole lot more directly through their phones. With the continually growing popularity of the NFL, Verizon wanted in – and they got it.

In a $720 million, 4-year deal, Verizon will allow its customers to watch live games on Thursdays and Sunday nights in addition to getting coverage from around the league all day every day. That’s huge news – here is a quick part of the press release:

Among the programming that will be available for the first time during the regular season will be the wildly popular NFL RedZone channel from the NFL Network, which airs live look-ins of every key play and touchdown from Sunday afternoon games. Fans also will be able to watch live streaming of NBC’s Sunday Night Football and NFL Network’s Thursday Night Football. In addition, fans will receive the NFL Network channel, which airs seven days a week, 24 hours a day on a year-round basis, and is the only network fully dedicated to the NFL and the sport of football.

“This is an agreement that has, at its core a mutual desire by both the NFL and Verizon Wireless to provide consumers with what they want on and off the field,” said John Stratton, executive vice president and chief marketing officer for Verizon Wireless. “For Verizon Wireless, it is NFL content delivered over our 3G network so football fans can extend the excitement of the sport long after the last touchdown of a season. And the NFL content is customizable in that consumers have options from video to ringtones to alerts; the choice is theirs.”

Sprint likely new this agreement was brewing and were simultaneously wheeling and dealing on their own – announcing they’ve just signed an agreement with ESPN to bring a ridiculous amount of sports programming to their own customers. So while it isn’t NFL overload, they’re now able to cover a broad range of sports for their customers:

Fans Can Watch Live Professional and College Games on Their Sprint Mobile Devices
OVERLAND PARK, Kan. & BRISTOL, Conn., Mar 12, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) — ESPN and Sprint (NYSE: S) are teaming up to give Sprint customers the ultimate sports experience – in the palm of their hands – with ESPN Mobile TV available on Sprint TV(R). Beginning today, ESPN Mobile TV will offer Sprint consumers unparalleled live sports programming and entertainment from ESPN via Sprint handheld devices.

ESPN Mobile TV coverage during March and April will feature more than 100 live events and over 250 hours of coverage for Sprint customers with this new agreement beginning just in time for fans to watch the Big 12 and Big East Conference Championship basketball games on Sprint mobile devices. Programming and live events through April include:

Take a look what Sprint is promising… and this is just through APRIL:

* 23 Live Men’s NCAA Basketball Games (including Conference Championship games)
* 19 Live Women’s NCAA Basketball Championship Games
* 9 NBA Playoff Games
* 15 Regular Season NBA Games
* 30 Live NBA Fastbreak Shows
* 10 Regular Season MLB Games
* 50 Live Baseball Tonight Studio Shows
* 3 College Football Spring games
* 3 Live Friday Night Fights
* 3 Live NCAA Hockey Championship Games
* 5 Live MLS Matches

So if the carrier didn’t matter… which would you prefer to have?

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