[opendtv] Re: CNET: Verizon's Go90 to deliver free mobile TV service

  • From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Mon, 21 Sep 2015 08:44:02 -0400



Regards
Craig


On Sep 20, 2015, at 7:58 PM, Manfredi, Albert E
<albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Something Monty posted, that I was unaware of, caught my eye. Why? Because it
is PRECISELY what Craig thinks will never happen. A FOTI service, offered by
Verizon but accessible to anyone, with live and on demand content. And no
need to plead with the FCC, to force any content owner to do anything.

What live content Bert?

The only live content is local NFL games that are only available to Verizon
subscribers in their home markets - this is possible because Verizon licensed
the mobile rights from the NFL and is providing them for "free" to subscribers.

They also mention some live college football games, but I cannot any details
about this.

Everything else already exists in other OTT services like Hulu.

This is, in short, an MVPD morphing into an OTT site, which I've suggested
would be a Really Good Idea for MVPDs. It happens to be FOTI, but in
principle, it wouldn't need to be.

Sorry, but no live linear streams Bert. And only a limited number of shows
offered the day after they air on a MVPD service. And only to mobile devices,
using up data from their data plans - not exactly "free."

Here is an analysis of the service from Variety:

http://variety.com/2015/digital/news/verizon-go90-free-mobile-video-bandwidth-charges-1201587755/

"The biggest mobile carrier in the US, Verizon faces bruising competition in
its main business from upstarts like T-Mobile and Sprint. Go90 will help set
it apart from rivals."

Exactly. If you pay attention to all the ads and promotions out there the most
important asset is the subscriber. Carriers are paying hundreds of dollars to
get customers to switch. Sometimes this is cash; sometimes it is buying out
your contract with a rival service; sometimes it's a discount on an expensive
new phone.

Carriers are scrambling to offer more than just a data plan. The opportunity to
make money from add on services is all but gone thanks to smartphones and app
stores. Hiding the cost of phones in the monthly service fees is all but gone -
the industry is moving to installment credit plans to buy phones, and now
leasing plans that enable phone upgrades on a 1-2 year schedule, not unlike
leasing a car (the NYT has an article about this).

What Verizon is doing is another experiment, targeting Millennials with some ad
supported content tied to social networking to drive demand...

For the metered data that the carriers sell. From the Variety article:

But Verizon also has another big profit motive: It wants to hook consumers on
bandwidth-hungry video content, so that they’ll potentially upgrade to more
expensive plans.

Bert continues:
So, how hard is it to predict that someone soon will compete against this, by
offering a similar package as a regular Internet service, as opposed to only
usable by limited proprietary-protocol devices?

Waaaaaay too late - similar services have existed for years, except for the NFL
games. You can access all of the content Verizon is offering via the.com sites,
Hulu and others.

And there will be competition in the mobile space as well:

http://news.investors.com/technology/091815-771754-tmus-ceo-says-verizon-go90-debacle-like-amazon-fire-phone.htm

T-Mobile CEO Legere: Verizon Go90 Will Be 'Debacle'
T-Mobile US CEO John Legere says Verizon Communications' Go90 mobile video
service could be a "debacle," and that cable TV firms such as Comcast might
need to buy a wireless phone company to stay competitive.

T-Mobile will bid aggressively in a U.S. government auction of airwaves now
controlled by TV broadcasters slated for early 2016, the company said Friday
at a Goldman Sachs investor conference.

...

Verizon aims to drive video consumption, so customers buy bigger buckets of
data. Legere says he's unimpressed with the strategy.

...

At the Goldman conference Wednesday, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts said his firm
also plans to offer mobile video to customers. Comcast has expanded its Wi-Fi
network, mainly through residential hotspots, and has the option of leasing
wholesale network capacity from Verizon Wireless and Sprint under earlier
agreements.

Taking Shots At Comcast

Legere said that as content continues to migrate to the Internet, and the
Internet goes mobile, the cable industry will need to control its own mobile
assets rather than rely on wholesale deals with wireless carriers. Wholesale
deals create what the industry calls MVNOs, or mobile virtual network
operators.

"You really believe that the Comcast future in wireless is to be an MVNO with
Verizon? I mean, give me a break," Legere said. "The timing of when the cable
players come into the wireless phase — it's purely determined by who blinks
first."

Analysts at UBS and Oppenheimer have speculated that Comcast could buy
T-Mobile.

AT&T (NYSE:T) acquired satellite TV broadcaster DirecTV Group in July. AT&T
has launched wireless promotions that target DirecTV subscribers.

John Stankey, AT&T's new CEO of entertainment and Internet services, also
recently took a shot at Comcast. At AT&T's analyst day event, Stankey said
that "If you ask me what success is in this (DirecTV acquisition), I want
Comcast to really regret the fact that they don't own a wireless asset —
maybe they'll have to do something about it. That's success for me."



Regards

Craig

Other related posts:

  1. Home
  2. opendtv
  3. Archive
  4. 09-2015