ESPN360.com To Become ESPN3.com. Is The Ocho Far Behind?

Yes, we all laughed when the movie “Dodgeball” had an “ESPN: The Ocho”. Well, maybe the movie wasn’t that far off. Today, we received this announcement that ESPN will rebrand its broadband service from ESPN360.com to ESPN3.com. And with the already existing ESPN and ESPN2 channels, we are just five channels away from seeing The Ocho. Anyway, here’s the press release.

ESPN360.com to Become ESPN3.com in April

Enhancements to User Interface will Accompany Rename

Bristol, CT – On April 4, ESPN360.com, ESPN’s 24/7 broadband sports network, will become ESPN3.com.  At that time the network will also introduce new features and functionality that will enhance the viewing experience. Details of these enhancements will be released closer to the launch in the spring. 

“The name ESPN3.com more closely aligns with the existing naming convention for our networks,” said Sean Bratches, executive vice president, sales and marketing. “We have approached this as a network for years, and as users have become more accustomed to engaging with content across various screens, it made sense to make adjustments that reflect both the product’s and the industry’s evolution.”

Added Damon Phillips, vice president, ESPN3.com, “The network will continue to offer the same great content that sports fans have come to expect, with more than 3,500 live events annually.  We look forward to rolling out new enhancements to offer the best viewing experience possible in the months ahead.”

ESPN3.com will continue to give consumers control over their broadband sports viewing experience with the ability to pause and rewind live events. Fans will continue to be able to toggle between up to 20 events in a main viewing window, and with a single click, jump to another event. Video can be viewed in widescreen (16:9) and normal (4:3) views and can be expanded to full screen or reduced to a compact size. Recently completed events will continue to be archived and available for on-demand replay.

The site will feature the same live online sports coverage that users are accustomed to on ESPN360.com.  Events include, but are not limited to:

• Basketball:  NBA, Men’s and Women’s college basketball, Euroleague, FIBA, WNBA;
• Football:  College Football (including the BCS Bowl games beginning next season)
• Soccer:  FIFA World Cup events and global qualifiers, Football League (UK), Carling Cup (UK), La Liga (Spain), Italian Serie A, Portuguese Liga Sagres, MLS, US National team, international “friendlies” and more;
• Baseball:  MLB, College World Series, Little League World Series;
• Tennis:  Hundreds of hours of multi-court coverage of all four “grand slam” events as well as select other events;
• Golf:  extensive coverage of the US Open, The Masters, The Open Championship and more;
• Lacrosse:  Major League Lacrosse, NCAA College Lacrosse;
• Misc. Sports:  X Games and Winter X Games, NCAA Hockey and Softball, Open-wheel Racing, Professional Racquetball, International Polo and more.

The network is available at no cost to fans who receive their high-speed Internet connection from an affiliated service provider and is currently in 50 million households – a majority of US broadband homes. It is accessible via dozens of Internet Service Providers nationwide, including AT&T, Verizon, Cox Communications, Comcast, RCN, Insight, Frontier, Cavalier, Charter, Mediacom, Conway, Grande Communications and more.

I do admit ESPN360, soon-to-be ESPN3 is useful in the office when I need to see an event.