The Watch ESPN App - For better or for worse, ESPN understands the importance of promotional products

Some time ago I ended up getting a hold of a basketball stressball that had been floating around the office. I believe it was our receptionist, Nicole that ended up with it somehow and had added it to her collection of novelty promotional items that were lined up on her desk. One day I commented on her collection and she mentioned that she wasn't the biggest basketball fan, but figured it went well with the other items so she included it in the collection anyway. She also mentioned in passing that she'd like it a lot better if it had been a baseball stressball. I just so happened to have a baseball stress reliever in my office, so I decided that I would make a trade with her since I do enjoy basketball and already had a real custom printed baseball in my office, but no basketball. We made the trade and everybody won, including ESPN because imprinted on the basketball stress reliever was the logo for ESPN's new smartphone app; Watch ESPN.

As you may have guessed if you didn't already know, the Watch ESPN app allows you to do exactly that while you are on the go. In concept it's a great app, especially for the avid sports fan that's not at home very often. In reality there are a few drawbacks, the main one being that although the app is free to download and enjoy, you must be an existing customer of one of a selected group of cable providers. I understand that they aren't about to dish out free programming that is normally paid for, but I am in fact a paying customer of many of ESPN's channels as a part of the cable package that I subscribe to. So it is frustrating to be excluded from the privileged list of people that can use it. However, I did what probably many others have done and called someone I knew that subscribed to one of the chosen providers. All you need is the login information, so it doesn't cost the subscriber anything for use of the app. Once I had access to the app, I was ready to watch anything I could watch on ESPN or ESPN2 and I did just that. I know at this point it is nothing all that new, but I still get a kick out of watching live television on my phone. Then came the other drawback of the app. At one point I noticed a note somewhere on the app that said 'Device Restrictions May Apply' but thought nothing of it since I was already enjoying ESPN programming on my device. That is, until kickoff of the Monday Night Football game. That is when I found out about at least one of the device restrictions. I have no idea why they would prevent people from watching the game on their phone, especially if they will allow it on an iPad. However, since I was determined to follow the game, it led me to another great app and I am thrilled to have found it. It's called TuneIn Radio, it's free and the app allows you to stream live radio from local stations to stations around the entire country. On this night I was looking for the game, but for future use it allows you to scroll through talk stations that range in topics from sports to news, politics and more. You can even search for songs and it will find stations that are playing it. In this case, one app unintentionally led me to another great app, but had TuneIn Radio promoted their app with a fun promotional product, I may have found out about it and passed along my recommendation for it sooner.