Verizon's Video Deals Just Blip On Screen

Filed in archive Business Trends on December 1, 2006

Verizon's clearly pushing hard to convince people to subscribe to its $15-a-month V Cast service. This week the company announced deals with YouTube and Revver.

As MediaPost points out:

"... the deals unveiled so far don't seem likely to spark subscriptions. Consider, YouTube and Revver already are available for free online. And, while a computer screen doesn't provide as good a view as a larger TV screen, it's still far better than a two-inch mobile phone screen. It's hard to imagine that too many people will be willing to shell out $15 a month--more than, say, the cost of HBO--for material they can already view gratis.

Additionally, Verizon, YouTube and Revver will select the videos to be available on the service. Maybe that's because it's not technically feasible to enable users to search and choose the videos they wish to see. But won't most early adopters ... also want the ability to choose which videos to watch?

Currently, just a tiny fraction of people are accessing video clips via cell phones. Ipsos Insight this week reported that only 3% of U.S. mobile phone owners have ever downloaded music videos to their phones, while a mere 2% have downloaded short video clips.