According to ESPN: “ESPN3 harnesses the quality ESPN has built through its TV networks and delivers online sports programming to fans through a rich, interactive, and easy-to-use experience. ESPN3 broadcasts thousands of live games and events online each year. A majority of the events are exclusive to ESPN3, while others are broadband-enhanced versions of games from one of ESPN’s TV networks.”
ESPN is owned by The Walt Disney Company.
The Walt Disney Company’s largest individual shareholder, Apple CEO Steve Jobs, can’t be happy about this mickey mouse subsidiary’s blatant incompetence, can he?
Disney is a notorious Flash junky. Consider this an intervention. It’s time for rehab, Disney; time to get clean.
MacDailyNews Take: The answer to the question posed in our headline is “Yes.” If Steve Jobs isn’t on the horn raising holy hell by 9am PDT, he ought to be. Meanwhile we, and 90+ million others, sit here with our iPads, iPhones, and iPod touches looking at a brand new ESPN website wondering if any company could possibly be any stupider and more myopic.
ESPN advertisers should realize that they are locked out of delivering their messages to 90+ million potential customers with above average discretionary income and the proven willingness to spend it. Disney and ESPN advertisers and shareholders (including the largest individual shareholder) should demand that Disney and ESPN use open standards, not bloated, crash-prone, closed, proprietary, plug-in-based, vestigial delivery methods for online video.
Get with the program, Disney and ESPN.
Contact Info:
• ESPN Customer Care Team: 888-549-ESPN
• ESPN Feedback
• ESPN Report a Bug
• ESPN3.com Video Player Online Chatroom Feedback (login req’d)
Note to advertisers: (including those who advertise via third-party ad networks and become, in effect, our advertisers): Your Flash-based ads are no longer reaching the most well-heeled customers online: 50+ million iPhone owners. They’re also not hitting 35+ million iPod touch users or 1+ million brand new iPad users. If you care about reaching people with discretionary income, you might want to consider dumping your flash-based ads and moving to a more open format that people with money and the will to spend it can actually see.
Help kill Adobe’s Flash:
• Ask MarketWatch to offer HTML5 video via the customer support web form here.
• Ask CNBC to offer HTML5 video via the customer support web form here.
• Contact Hulu and ask them to offer HTML5 video via email:
• Ask ESPN360 to offer HTML5 video instead Flash via their feedback page here.
• Join YouTube’s HTML5 beta here.
• On Vimeo, click the “Switch to HTML5 player” link below any video.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Jeff Z.” for the heads up.]
This site may have been in development for quite some time. I’m sure the conversion to HTML5 is already underway, but to delay the launch because Apple and Adobe ratcheted up their fight over the past couple of weeks is unfair.
Do any mobile platforms support FLASH? I know DROID DOES … NOT!
ESPN is not only missing with boat with Apple mobile products, but most mobile products. What are they thinking? And you’re right, their largest stockholder should be calling someone to task over this.
“ESPN advertisers should realize that they are locked out of delivering their messages to 90+ million potential customers with above average discretionary income”
And not JUST espn.
I think Bizlaw has it right. No doubt they are rewiring the castle over there
Less stupid than lazy. Easier to follow the Flash crowd than to stand out with new tech.
You do know the “S” in ESPN stands for Sports, right?
So, yes, of course they are stupid.
HAhahahahahahaha. Sorry MDN, but sometimes your campaign sounds a tad shrill.
I just reported a bug!
Jobs shouldn’t and cannot call in his capacity as a shareholder. As a board member, he can quiz management on it’s decision making, but at the end of the day, that’s all a board does, is oversee management, and approve commitment of material resources through out the businesses.
Just emailed the site and politely explained why HTML5 is the future of the web and why it’s in their best interest to make the switch.
I’ve been doing that a lot lately. If all Mac users did the same, we can make the transition happen even more rapidly!
Just the thought of receiving a phonecall from cupertino should send shivers down their spines.
Sports are for men. And real men don’t use iPads.
Seriously, the entire Disney web presence is built in Flash. They must of built an inhouse department with nothing but Flash developers. I don’t think that can build a non-Flash site without firing everyone.
First Pixar’s Toy Story 3 and now Disney’s ESPN? Paging Mr Jobs….time to go Mercurial, sir
So, they should re-write the site with cutting edge HTML5, thereby cutting off the measly 50-70% of desktop/laptop users browsing with non-HTML5 compatible browsers like IE?
Some seriously sound business advice right there…
This past basketball season you needed to run Safari in 32-bit mode just to let ESPN360’s video stream work. I don’t know if that has changed in ESPN3.
Hordur ,
It’s not an either/or proposition.
Developers simply need to check the browser/OS combo and serve up cutting edge HTML5 to tech savvy users and Flash to the ignoramuses who love the sound of their CPU fans spinning.
They could even do some ad targeting at that level:
– Apple and BMW ads to HTML5 visitors
– Dell and Wal-Mart ads to the Flash luddites.
“They must of built an inhouse department with nothing but Flash developers.”
It used to be, “They must ‘have’ built,” when I learned English. What happened?
Teacher unions.
How stupid are these people??? Don’t they understand that only 93.1% of ALL devices used to access the internet will be able to access them!!
Steve realizes that he has the clout because his OS’s controls 6.99% of the world!!!!! The world needs to line up and kiss his ass like all of you do here!!!
Wooo Hoo Steve, We love you!!!!!
“must’ve” was most likely the intended contraction, good eye Ron.
must have
must’ve
must of
They all sound the same in my head when I’m typing.
@Spark’s – “Sports are for men. And real men don’t use iPads.”
You hear that, Big Al?!?!?
Open up a can o’ WhoopA$$ on ’em!
I stopped visiting ESPN.com on a regular basis when it was clear they were going to force audio on every page.
Sorry I like to listen to podcasts or music while I surf, i don’t want your crap audio playing over top what I’m listening to.
PLEASE Apple add a browser-centric volume control to the next Safari release.
@Fred Mertz
“Developers simply need to check the browser/OS combo and serve up cutting edge HTML5 to tech savvy users and Flash to the ignoramuses who love the sound of their CPU fans spinning.”
So to reach those coveted, filthy rich, (allegedly) spendhappy iPhone/iPad users site builders should always create two sites, thereby doubling the project dev, maintenance and operations cost? Doesn’t make much sense to me, unfortunately.
And on the subject of CPU spinning, who’s to say that the same fancy UI, animations, media streaming and other stuff done in HTML5 (if it were possible, which it isn’t) would use significantly less CPU ? Can you point to a comparable HTML5 site that doesn’t spin the CPU ?
must have
must’ve
must of
They all sound the same in my head when I’m typing.
Exactly! Doesn’t make right though. Words mean things. (Rush).
Yeah it’s called YouTube .