Verizon Wireless Revving Up Its Push Into Mobile Video

from the make-it-two dept

Wed, Nov 29th 2006 8:40am — Joseph Weisenthal

A day after announcing a poorly-conceived deal with YouTube, Verizon Wireless is at it again, bringing more video to its VCast service. This time it's signed a deal with Revver, the online video site that inserts ads into user-generated videos, and splits the revenue with the creator. It's not clear whether this deal, like the one with YouTube, will only give customers access to a limited selection of online videos. But even if it offers the full slate of content on the site, the deal seems like a bad one for Revver. The deal gives Verizon Wireless exclusive access to Revver content for the next 12 months. You have to imagine that the next 12 months are going to be pretty big for the wireless video space, and here Revver is promising to cut itself off from a major part of the market. This probably won't make Revver's users very happy, at a time when an more and more sites are exploring models that involved paying the contributor. Obviously, Revver and other fledgling services will be tempted by the immediate payments, but making deals that could hamper their future growth doesn't seem wise.

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Anonymous Coward, 29 Nov 2006 @ 9:39am

Never good
Exclusive content contracts are never good.

The content and distribution industries continue to prove that they dont get "abundance" by trying to artificailly create scarcity.

Just how does artificially creating scarcity help anyone?
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Ajax 4Hire, 29 Nov 2006 @ 10:50am

Video on my cellphone, why??
As if I am going to watch video on my cellphone.

This is yet another way to blame cellphones for automobile accidents:
I didn't see the pedestrian because I was watching youTube on my cell phone.

ohh, sniff, sniff, I smell lawsuit.
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anonymous coward, 29 Nov 2006 @ 12:41pm

I've been on both sides of the table with both types of companies. The rules are simple:

Strong, growing, profitable companies don't sign exclusive deals.

Scared, uncertain, cash strapped companies sign any deal (ie: exclusive) that they can.
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|333173|3|_||3, 29 Nov 2006 @ 4:54pm

What about Google?Strong, Growing so damn fast they are runniong the rish of swallowing the entire production of Western Digital, Seagate and the rest of the HDD manufacturers, and so rich they would not notice a vast sum of money.
Maybe this is one of those wierd but sucessful ploys that they pull, like the invites system for gmail.
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S.S. Hoffman, 1 Dec 2006 @ 12:28pm

"me too" play for Revver
I don't think it was smart of Revver to accept an exclusive deal with Verizon. I know why they did it... because they wanted to keep up with YouTube. Also, VCast is the most mature channel for video on mobile right now. Also, Revver, like YouTube, doesn't have any thick client app to launch independently.

That said, it's a "me too" play for Revver. Apparentnly, Verizon prioritized YouTube for the Press Release, and Revver won't get to be first on any other U.S. carrier because of the exclusivity.

That said, this is a good deal for Verizon. They get to have their cake and eat it too.

The Hoff

Up Your Channel!
www.zannel.com
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