Kravendaven

Verizon + YouTube = $$$ November 28, 2006

Video is now on the go.  Verizon just announced that YouTube will be available on their phones.  YouTube changed the internet’s view on videos and now it is expanding to wireless technology.  Soon people will be using their cell phones to watch movies on the subway into New York City or even at work on their cigarette break. 

Verizon has had their service called VCast for about a year now but hasn’t been immensely popular.  Verizon is forcing customers who want to be able to have YouTube on their phones to sign up with VCast.  It is about $15/ month but only comes with a limited selection of videos available on YouTube as well as other services that Verizon offers such as weather.  Verizon hopes that this introduction will increase sales as well as increase the number of subscribers to VCast. 

The real question is: Is it worth $15/ month?  VCast does offer YouTube, but at the same time it only offers a small portion of it selected by Verizon.  What videos are they going to select as viewable by the general audience?  Are they going to sensor the videos that are popular, yet have content that is not approved of by the FCC?

On the upside of things, verizon offers many other features as well as YouTube.  They have music, videos, sport, weather, as well as games.  Some featured artist are Fergie, Jimi Hendrix, Busta Rhymes, Shakiria, and many more.  Some of their music videos are also offered. 

Would you be using all those features that much in a month on your cell phone when you have a perfectly good computer, TV, radio, and internet connection in your own home that will do the exact same thing to make VCast worth $15 extra a month?