When EXPN rebranded to ESPN Action Sports last month and updated the web presence, we grilled them pretty hard. Our reasoning is that we thought they were off better keeping their action sports content as a separate brand and we also thought they needed to work on improving their overall content quality. They must have been listening, because today they’re announcing several partnerships and strategy changes to do just that.

While we still think they have much improving to do–namely keeping the action sports content separate from all the other sports–they’re definitely heading in the right direction.

ESPN Action Sports announced that they’re adding several more bloggers and content partners. They’re teaming up with Tony Hawk’s Shred or Die to provide more user generated video content. They’re also partnered with On the Snow and Surfline to provide applications for snow and surf reports.

ESPN still has a long ways to go in regards to the authenticity and quality of their content. And please, do a better job keeping the regular sports stuff out of the action sports portal. But this move is one that takes them in the right direction. My advice is for ESPN is to keep creating more content partnerships like this one. If they’re not capable of providing good content themselves, they might as well partner with those who are.

Tags: Shred or Die, Surfline

Posted by Cameron on Friday, February 27th, 2009 in Industry.

• -EXPN Rebranded as ESPN Action Sports, Yawn
• -Tony Hawk’s Shred or Die Raises $3 Million
• -Quiksilver and ESPN Resolve Lawsuit
• -ESPN Out of Touch with Action Sports
• -Action Sports Central Now Syndicating