ESPN to launch new interactive TV features in 2009

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ESPN will launch three interactive features in 2009 that will let viewers use remote controls to access scores and statistics from its website and vote in polls while watching ESPN on television, officials told Reuters on Monday.

The cable sports network, owned by Walt Disney Co (DIS.N), has dabbled in interactive TV features in the past through limited programs with several distributors, but it now plans to phase-out those programs and pitch the new system to all of its 800 distributors early next year, said Sean Bratches, ESPN sales and marketing executive.

The network hopes to deliver a multi-platform mass audience to advertisers, and new connectivity to viewers, through a marriage of its TV programing, data-rich website and mobile offerings, Bratches said.

"Ultimately, it is our goal to create national ubiquity," Bratches said. "Advertiser interest is very high in what we have done. We have gotten advertisers to partner on all the smaller ones, and now we really want to make an investment."

Ad sales for ESPN, the engine of Disney's Media Networks business, declined this quarter as buys from its crucial auto, financial services and electronics partners weakened.

At the same time, ESPN enjoyed record-breaking ratings and saw its 98 million subscribers access more online and mobile content than in 2008.

Bratches would not say how much ESPN plans to spend developing and launching the new features, which can ride on technology that already exists in most subscribers' homes.

ESPN My Vote and ESPN In Game Extra, available in many older TV set-top boxes, allow viewers to vote in polls during live airings of certain programs and to get additional statistics (player tracking, scores, standings and schedules) during live sporting events.

My Bottom Line, deployed using newer set-top boxes, lets viewers program the data crawl on the bottom of the screen to access stats, standings and research, including information about fantasy leagues.

Subscribers will get the services free through their existing ESPN subscriptions starting in June 2009. The new service will roll out as the network obtains carriage agreements from its distributors, Bratches said.

"We want an affiliate to adopt all three and will structure our agreements to incentivize carriers to take it," he said.

While ESPN has long offered multi-platform deals, it expects the national reach of the new features to appeal to advertisers.

"They want a national footprint with a singular product that is compelling to the sports fan," Bratches said.

(Reporting by Gina Keating; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)