Mobile & Wireless

Verizon to Offer ‘Mobile YouTube’

Industry Insiders Ask ‘Will Users Pay?’

by Iain Morris

Verizon Wireless has reportedly said that from December its customers will be able to access video clips from YouTube on their mobile phones.

It appears as though the US operator – jointly owned by Verizon Communications and Vodafone – is hoping that YouTube’s content will spark interest in its Vcast mobile TV service. Reports indicate that, under the terms of the deal, Vcast subscribers will now be able to download movies from YouTube’s website using their mobile phones. Marketing director Robin Chan has also indicated that customers will now be assigned five-digit short codes, allowing them to more easily post their own videos on YouTube than was previously possible using an email address.

For a monthly fee of US$15, Vcast already allows its users to access video clips from providers with which Verizon has struck agreements, but the service has had a disappointing reception to date. Out of the 20 million customers with phones that support Vcast, just 2 million have taken up the service, according to data compiled by analyst firm Ovum.

In a recent conversation with Telecommunications International, IBM partner Sandy Aitken said that directing customers to popular content from YouTube might be a better strategy for mobile operators to pursue than trying to replicate a YouTube-type service.

But others at IBM remain to be convinced this is a viable means of growing ARPU.

“The consumers who spend most of their time looking at that sort of stuff will continue to do that over their PCs and certainly not pay for it over their mobile phones,” says Lawrence Kenny, vice president of global business services for IBM.

Operators worldwide are increasingly keen to differentiate their offers on the basis of content, but Kenny believes this flies in the face of a market where ‘ultimately all content will be free to anyone’.

The financial terms of the reported deal between Verizon and YouTube owner Google have not been made available.

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