“Cutting the cord” grows ever more … sharp, shall we say?
Cable companies are under duress as more and more customers either cut television packages due to cost … or just decide that they’d rather use mobile, anyway.
Verizon Communications knows this. And the company hopes to lure millennials into streaming live and on-demand television via their smartphones.
“The telecommunications company plans to announce this week the start of a free, ad-supported mobile streaming service called Go90, a reference to the behavior of rotating a phone to watch videos in landscape mode,” reports The New York Times. “Aimed at 18- to 34-year-olds, the service will be available to all users, regardless of whether or not they are Verizon customers.”
The plan builds on a wise observation by Verizon’s president of product innovation and new business Marni Walden: “Seventy percent of this group view on mobile first; that’s an enormous opportunity.”
“Executives made a conscious decision not to include the word Verizon when choosing a name for the new service, in part to appeal to as broad an audience as possible,” according to the same report. “That is important as Verizon seeks to bolster its mobile ad business and deliver to advertisers big audiences that watch premium content. Go90 also could serve as a marketing tool to attract new customers to Verizon’s wireless service.”
Reportedly, Go90 will offer an amalgam of live events, prime-time television, and original web series.
“Rather than the inventory of entire networks, included are popular shows from Comedy Central, Food Network, ESPN, NFL Network, and Discovery, as well as popular online series from AwesomenessTV, Vice, Tastemade, and Machinima,” notes the NYT. “Go90 will also feature National Football League games and live concerts.”
Word is that, though the offering will be a mobile-first product, execs think streaming options could work on traditional televisions, too.
The cord cutting is getting severe and something needs to change. If advertising is moving to mobile, why shouldn’t television?
