[Mobile ESPN Asia Pacific] Launch

Singapore -- Bridge Mobile, NeuStar (NYSE: NSR) and ESPN STAR Sports collaborate to bring "Mobile ESPN" service across seven markets in Asia Pacific.

This means that we'll be able to view super sports content such as the upcoming World Cup in Germany via our mobiles. That is if we live in areas covered by Airtel (India), CSL (Hong Kong), Globe Telecom (Philippines), Maxis (Malaysia), SingTel Mobile (Singapore), Taiwan Mobile (Taiwan) and Telkomsel (Indonesia). These companies come together under what is called the Bridge Mobile Alliance.

The offerings are being branded (packaged) under the Mobile ESPN label. This is the mobile sports content service to be provided by ESPN STAR Sports, a joint venture between two of the world’s leading cable and satellite broadcasters, ESPN Inc. and STAR.

Put in context, digital broadcaster, ESPN STAR Sports transmits the world’s premier live sports and leading regional sports events to over 139 million households on ESPN and over 63 million households on STAR Sports TV networks.

The link between Bridge Mobile and ESPNSTAR TV is through a Singapore company called, NeuStar Asia Pacific Pte Ltd. They provide the clearing house for the many telephone call requests from the mobile users and ensure the requested audio-video is delivered to the hand set - such as ESPN STAR Sports content and service applications for English Premier League (EPL), Major League Baseball (MLB) and National Basketball Association (NBA), amongst others.

Mobile ESPN’s coverage of the 2006 World Cup is the first sports content to be commercially launched, with more to come in the months ahead. (Please see attached Annex for more details on full service offering). The services are delivered through a regional infrastructure platform provided by Bridge Mobile and NeuStar.

Dr. Patrick Sim, Bridge Mobile Chief Executive Officer is touting the Mobile ESPN service as the first and largest multi-market rollout of a regional mobile content service.

Jamie Davis, ESPN STAR Sports Managing Director, said the new project "is what avid fans expect on our TV channels and on espnstar.com and creates a pre-eminent third screen in sports."

Jeff Ganek, NeuStar CEO points to the content platform as a good exposure for his company: "NeuStar is pleased to join this highly regarded team and we look forward to supporting the expansion of more content services in the near future.”

Interesting fact: Bridge Mobile Alliance claims an 80 million combined customer base across the Asia Pacific region.

Let us see what the video offerings turn out to be. The launch is the up front hype.

I thought the announcement would have included a dedicated web site to click on to having fired up my curiosity, but I guess we have to wait for that to materialise.