Of all the phone companies, Verizon poses the biggest threat to cable companies — the telco’s fiber-to-the-home video and high-speed service is a potent competitive alternative to cable’s dominant multichannel and broadband offerings. But, Verizon’s landline rivalry isn’t the only challenge posed to cable. Operators should also be casting a wary eye on Verizon Wireless’ efforts to jumpstart a viable mobile video business.
Verizon Wireless is trying its mightiest to bring domestic mobile video options up to speed with the rest of the world. The New York Times’ Laura Holson has this piece today about Verizon Wireless’ plan to announce tomorrow that it will start offering full-length TV shows. The mobile operator will offer eight channels of programming that consist of shows from NBC, CBS, Fox and MTV — content from ESPN is in the offing too.
Verizon will use MediaFlo’s Qualcomm technology, with the service launching in March to customers with Samsung and LG phones and no doubt other compatible handsets.
The choice of programmers is interesting because none of them are affiliated with cable companies — you don’t see Time Warner’s HBO or Cartoon Network or CNN in the mix. That’s not to say that vertically integrated cable programmers won’t jump on the opportunity to sell their wares over mobile platforms owned by non-cable companies. But, it’s clearly easier for Verizon Wireless to strike content deals with pure content providers.
This move is Verizon Wireless’ second high-profile attempt to bring popular video to its mobile devices. In late-November, the cell phone service provider announced a pact with still-hot video sharing site YouTube, although YouTube fans and bloggers alike roundly castigated the idea as lame.
Cynthia Brumfield at 11:39 AM|Comments(0)
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