ESPN Launches UK Edition of Mobile App
Story Highlights
ESPN has launched the localized UK edition of its flagship app as it revealed strong growth across its mobile properties. UK traffic to ESPN’s mobile properties – including multi-sports hub ESPN UK, the world’s leading cricket site ESPNcricinfo, and global football brand ESPN FC – has grown by 53% between June 2014 and June 2016.
The new app will provide a powerful, native mobile experience for UK users who increasingly turn to their mobile devices as the first point of access to the internet. Smartphones and tablets now account for 65% of total minutes online – up another 7% in just one year. Apps account for 81% of all time spent browsing the internet on mobile devices in the UK.
The ESPN app is built to ensure fans have fast, easy, access to ESPN’s leading content, latest news, scores, video, features and stats. With a focus on simple navigation, ease of content discovery and personalisation, the app delivers an elegant and intuitive experience across Android and iOS phones and tablets.
The introduction of the UK edition of the ESPN app follows its launch in the US, where it is the most downloaded sports app ever. The UK edition leverages the same world-class technology and content systems, developed in-house to power the world’s leading portfolio of digital sports properties. More local editions of the app will roll out in markets around the world by the end of the year.
The app framework enables ESPN’s UK editorial team to harness all of the company’s local and global resources to provide industry-leading coverage, news, video, features and updates for every major sport around the world. The simple navigation and user interface means sports fan can easily access and discover the world’s largest daily library of sports content.
A powerful personalisation engine lets fans identify their favourite sports, leagues and teams, and then prominently delivers the latest relevant scores, news, updates and video for their preferences. After registering on the app (or on ESPN.co.uk), a fan’s favourites are seamlessly persistent across both the app and the site, on any device.
App users can also set custom tailored notifications to be alerted with all the latest developments for their Favorites, specific sports, major breaking news, general news and more. In 2015, ESPN delivered more than 27 billion customized alerts to fans.
In May (the most recently published third-party global measurement), ESPN reached 112 million unique global visitors, who logged 6.6 billion minutes and 1 billion visits — making it the most-trafficked digital sports brand in the world for the 21st straight month.
Charly Classen, General Manager, ESPN – Europe, Middle East and Africa, commented: “Mobility is central to the sports fan experience today, and is central to the way we think about serving those fans. The ESPN app is the latest chapter in our pioneering digital story, which has seen us at the forefront of online trends for more than 20 years. ESPN is synonymous with sport throughout the world, and with this new edition of the app, UK fans will benefit from a global operation dedicated to producing the very best local and international sports content personalised to their unique sports preferences.”
The ESPN app is now available to download on the App Store and Google Play.
