|
Newsletters
|
|
|
|
|
|
WirelessDevNet.com Press Release
Cingular Wireless, ABC Sports and ESPN Launch a New Era of a Football Classic
Fans Are in Command With Wireless Text-Messaging to Determine the All-America College Football Player of the Week and Year
ATLANTA, Sept. 2 -- Cingular Wireless is teaming up with ABC Sports and ESPN this college football season to give fans the power to choose the All-America Player of the Week.
The Cingular Wireless/ABC Sports All-America Player of the Week and Player of the Year will be chosen by fans using text-messaging. Voting is open to subscribers of most wireless carriers* allowing even more fans to participate. Fans can also vote online.
Every week, four candidates for the All-America Player of the Week will be picked by ABC Sports college football analysts, led by John Saunders. The candidates will be announced after the last college game each Saturday during ESPN's "College GameDay Final." Fans will then have from that time until 8 p.m. Eastern Time on Sunday to text-message their votes. The winner will be announced during the 11 p.m. Eastern Time broadcast of ESPN "SportsCenter" each Sunday.
Each weekly winner will be awarded a trophy, and a $1,000 scholarship from Cingular will be made in his name to his college or university during a special ceremony at the winner's school. Fans who vote will be entered into a sweepstakes to win a trip to the Bowl Championship Series game of their choice.
"Cingular, ABC Sports and ESPN share a vision of using wireless text- messaging to allow sports fans to become a part of the action, and to actually help determine the outcome of the All-America Player each week," said Daryl Evans, vice president of advertising and marketing communications for Cingular Wireless. "And we don't want to leave anyone on the sidelines -- we've opened the voting up to all college football fans who want to participate."
On December 1, fans will get a chance to say who the best player in the nation is by voting for the Cingular ABC Sports All-America Player of the Year. Fans will have until December 8 to choose from among five finalists -- voting by either text messaging or online.
The selection process will culminate on December 11 at 2 p.m. EST, in a one-hour special on ABC Sports when the Cingular/ABC Sports Player of the Year (selected by fans), and the All America team (selected by ABC Sports and the Football Writers Association of America), will be announced. The All-America Player of the Year will be awarded a trophy and a $10,000 scholarship from Cingular will be made in his name to his school.
"This agreement is a great example of how ESPN ABC Sports Sales tailors a marketing program to suit our customer's needs as well as engage sports fans whenever and wherever they consume sports," said Ed Erhardt, president, ESPN ABC Sports Customer Marketing and Sales. "We are pleased to grow and develop a continuing relationship with Cingular Wireless."
Here's how fans can vote for the Cingular ABC Sports All America Player:
Text "PLAYER" to "64444" on your wireless phones
Follow the prompt to vote for your All-America selection
Alternatively, go to http://www.espn.com and enter keyword "Cingular"
For fans voting on their wireless phones, they need only register one time. Then, each week, the four candidates for Player of the Week will automatically be sent to their wireless phones.
Other wireless carriers must opt-in for their subscribers to participate
ABOUT CINGULAR WIRELESS
Cingular Wireless, a joint venture between SBC Communications (NYSE: SBC - News) and BellSouth (NYSE: BLS - News), serves more than 25 million voice and data customers across the United States. A leader in mobile voice and data communications, Cingular is the only U.S. wireless carrier to offer Rollover(SM), the wireless plan that lets customers keep their unused monthly minutes. Cingular is the largest provider of GSM services in the United States, and has a 100 percent digital GSM/GPRS footprint across its service area. It also launched the world's first commercial deployment of wireless services using Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) technology. Cingular also provides corporate e-mail and other advanced data services through its GPRS, EDGE and Mobitex packet data networks. Details of the company are available at http://www.cingular.com . Get Cingular Wireless press releases e-mailed to you automatically. Sign up at http://www.cingular.com/newsroom .
|
|
|
