The free ESPN App for live sports on the iPad was released in April. When combined with the downloads on the Android platform, the ESPN App has had in excess of 2 million downloads, says Tim Connolly, VP of Digital at Disney/ESPN in this interview with Beet.TV.
The App has been widely used this week for ESPN's coverage of Wimbledon and the women's World Cup competition.
The use of the WatchESPN app is currently restricted to video subscribers of Time Warner Cable, Bright House Networks and Verizon FiOS TV who are required to log onto the App using their subscriber credentials. This is similar to the recent mobile HBO offering.
While ESPN declines to provide streaming numbers, Connolly sees the implementation of its sports App as a milestone in the development of "TV Everywhere," the industry initiative of bringing premium television content to digital devices.
In this video, he provides a live demo of the World Cup on his iPad.
Programming Note about Wimbledon: ESPN streams the weekday matches. The weekends are streamed by NBC Sports.
Andy Plesser
