Verizon to offer new Video Streaming service

This is pretty interesting. This would probably be an ad-driven model for profit. That is one of the reasons that the Yahoo acquisition is important to it.


TechCrunch

Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam confirmed the company’s plans to launch an over-the-top streaming service later this year, according to a report from Variety, citing remarks the CEO made at a telecom conference in Boston this week. Verizon (which owns TechCrunch parent company AOL), will use the combined platform of AOL and Yahoo – and their 1.3 billion users – to test the new platform, McAdam said.

The company expects to close on its acquisition of Yahoo mid-June, so the over-the-top service could arrive any time after that.

Mobile carriers getting more into Media

These telecom companies are figuring out how to deliver media and advertising through mobile phones. They don't charge for data when you're viewing the media they distribute.

Advertisers will pay more for advertising that multiple people see at once than they will for one head bent over the screen of a smart phone.

So, when you present a short funny cat video to your four friends and you're all laughing together -- they pay more, more fun is had, more message is out.

I do not think it's an accident that they are working on this kind of media before PicoP is widely available.

Wall Street Journal ( Much more at the source)

The show, which plays online and on Verizon’s smartphone video app, is part of a more than $10 billion gamble by Verizon to build a digital-media business to compete with Facebook and Google for advertising dollars.

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It is a radical move for a corporate giant long treated by investors as a utility with a safe dividend, and is a strategy that has previously stymied other players, including Yahoo itself. Even if it succeeds, it may have little impact “on the battleship that is Verizon,” said Craig Moffett, an analyst at MoffettNathanson.

Verizon isn’t alone among telecom carriers in trying to figure out a different form for the future. AT&T Inc. also had sought Yahoo, and last year AT&T spent $49 billion to acquire DirecTV and become the largest U.S. provider of pay television.

Mr. McAdam said the core of Verizon’s business will always be its wireless network and he isn’t expecting quick returns from the media investments, which are about 5% of capital spending. “It’s not a bet-the-company kind of play,” he said.

The executive has a history of making unorthodox moves. When he ran Verizon’s wireless unit, he joined with Google to develop what became the Android operating system for smartphones. That paid off, helping counter AT&T’s then-exclusive deal for the iPhone.

Last year, Mr. Piligian, whose Pilgrim Studios is owned by Lions Gate Entertainment Corp., and other producers figured they could revive the idea by using mobile technology to enable the chase and get viewers involved.

Marni Walden Behind Verizon's Acquisition of Yahoo

More content focus by telecom companies -- short video clips, and entertainment that doesn't count against your data cap. 

Why?


ReCode  (More at the source)

These days, though, Walden is in charge of new business opportunities for Verizon. Some of those are things that involve the cellular business, such as connected cars, but much of Walden’s work has been in areas new to both her and Verizon.

“People are surprised about Verizon getting into the content space,” Walden told Recode last year. “I think that’s really important to bring eyeballs and audience. Our media business will play a much more significant role in the Verizon of the future.”

It hasn’t all been easy going for Verizon, particularly its efforts in video programming. The company launched a mobile video service known as Go90 last year, but it remains a relative nonentity.

Rather than boasting well-known shows, big sports deals or original programming, Go90 has relied on short clips it hopes will appeal to the YouTube generation. In that vein, Verizon recently hired former YouTube executive Ivana Kirkbride to be Go90’s chief content officer.

Probably the biggest thing going for Go90 is that it can undercut rivals on price. Not only is there no price for subscribing, but for Verizon Wireless customers, using the service doesn’t even count against their data cap.