DailyTech - YouTube Heads to Verizon Cell Phones

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Gadgets YouTube Heads to Verizon Cell Phones
Brandon Hill (Blog) - November 28, 2006 7:12 AM

7 comment(s) - last by johnsonx.. on Nov 28 at 4:18 PM

Verizon's Vcast service to get select YouTube content

Two weeks ago, Google batted around the idea of free cell phones backed by targeted advertising. Google CEO Eric Schmidt remarked that consumers would be spending as much as ten hours daily on cell phones (even though studies say otherwise), which would make targeted advertising feasible.

YouTube, Google's newest acquisition, along with Verizon are also betting heavily that consumers will be glued to their cell phone's tiny screen. The two have announced that select YouTube video clips would be available through Verizon's Vcast wireless media service.

Vcast is available on select Verizon phone for a monthly fee of $15 USD and provides users music, video and game downloads. "Vcast subscribers tend to be higher-value customers in terms of ARPU (average revenue per user) versus traditional voice subscribers," said Verizon marketing director, Robin Chan.

Customers will not only be able to download YouTube content, but they will also be able to upload video footage from their cell phones to the site using a five-digit pen number instead of a keypad-unfriendly email address/password combination.

Verizon is hoping that the YouTube deal will help boost subscriptions to its Vcast service. While over 20 million of its customers have Vcast-enabled cell phones, only around 2 million actually subscribe to the service.

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Expensive Services

By TomZ on 11/28/2006 8:38:45 AM , Rating: 2

I just fail to grasp the value in a service like VCAST, and why it would be worth an additional $15/month. In other words, why can't I just have a device that can download and play music and videos without any monthly fee?

But of course, AT&T still forces us to pay a monthly surcharge for touch tone, so I guess I shouldn't be too surprised.

Also, I liked the quote: Vcast subscribers tend to be higher-value customers in terms of ARPU (average revenue per user) versus traditional voice subscribers I was thinking, duh, you really think so? Robin Chan has a real knack for stating the obvious. I mean, I have 4 cell phone accounts and pay around $100/month, so adding VCAST would be ~60% increase in the monthly cost.

RE: Expensive Services

By Orpheus333 on 11/28/2006 12:06:41 PM , Rating: 2

I agree, its a nice service, but for the price? no thanks.

So, your paying $15 a month for Vcast and now your going to be inundated with ads on the off chance you are in a situation where you have the constitution to sit down and navigate cell phone menus to look at a 2.5in" youtube video?

I interpret this as paying for ads.

Just wait until you get a txt message on how to "enlarge your pen0r" If anyone sees it you'll never live that one down...

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RE: Expensive Services

By vkyosho on 11/28/2006 12:12:00 PM , Rating: 2

I tried the Vcast service and i was disappointed. Downloading anything costs extra in addition to the 15$ monthly base charge. This will attract those who use their phone as a multimedia device which I suppose happens to be everyone that subscribed to VCast

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RE: Expensive Services

By johnsonx on 11/28/2006 4:18:44 PM , Rating: 2

Yeah, I just got my wife a new phone that happens to be a VCast phone. She chose the Samsung SCH-a930, chosen among the comparitvely few reasonably priced phones that have a 1.3 megapixel camera (for when she wants to take snap picture of the kids or something and doesn't have her 6mp Canon on hand). I didn't sign her up for the VCast service, as I gathered that's a $15 a month fee for the priveledge of paying an additional fee for every download. I guess there must be some things included in the base price, but the whole thing was nothing she wanted. Thankfully we were given no pressure to sign up for VCast.

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hold the phone...

By UnFaZeD on 11/28/2006 10:00:36 AM , Rating: 1

..so you can only upload? why even bother - I dont know of anyone who's a big enough attention whore to pay $15 for uploading videos of themsleves in near real time without having access to other vids...

RE: hold the phone...

By abbazaba on 11/28/2006 11:19:58 AM , Rating: 3

You can both upload and download...read the whole article.

Customers will not only be able to download YouTube content, but they will also be able to upload video footage from their cell phones to the site using a five-digit pen number instead of a keypad-unfriendly email address/password combination.

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No coverage at all here...

By Ramshambo on 11/28/2006 9:29:57 AM , Rating: 2

I can barely get mobile web to work let alone any vcast coverage in my city. I wish that these cell phone companies would improve voice clarity and coverage for services we really need then try to take on these worthless endeavors.