of the motivations for brands to become an MVNO in order to sell their content and applications, and the pickings start to look extremely thin. The rise of mechanisms to sell content, applications and services through app stores have meant that the motivation for many brands to go to the expense of establishing an MVNO in order to sell their products has eroded. Disney and ESPN High profile failures such as Disney's and ESPN's abandoned MVNOs have been replaced by app store strategies to sell content. McKenzie sees narrowed scope for new MVNOs and thinks that, while MVNOs will continue to exist, new entrants will need to have strong complimentary assets such as a network of retail stores or a means to advertise the service. "Companies that want to target customers don't need to become an MVNO. They can just sell their apps, content and services to the whole population," he adds. "ESPN, for example, had an unsuccessful MVNO in the US but it has now launched a mobile app to sell its content. It hasn't had to go to the expense of building an MVNO to do that. When you own content and want to sell it, you'll go for the biggest audience possible and avoid the complexity of building an MVNO. "My feeling is that it will become more not less difficult to become an MVNO. Whoever comes into the market had better have a strong complimentary asset and also consider using MVNEs to keep the level of