Verizon To Offer You Tube Videos
Marketwatch reports: "Verizon Wireless will become the first mobile-phone company to allow customers to watch videos from the popular Web site YouTube on their handsets beginning next month, the two companies announced Tuesday. Under the deal, Verizon customers who sign up for the company's $15-a-month V Cast wireless Internet service would be able to access "a sampling of the most popular videos" from YouTube. The service would be available exclusively to Verizon customers for "a limited time," though they would need to upgrade their phones to see the videos."
This sounds almost cool. For it to be truly cool it would have to be more than a "sampling" of videos. Oh well, the more You Tube the better, right? —MEGHANN MARCO
Verizon, YouTube see a future for mobile video [Market Watch]
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Buy an upcoming Nokia n95 or probably any other Symbian-based smartphone in the near future, and just browse youtube itself from your phone using a normal data plan on any GSM carrier (like t-mobile or cingular)
http://thenokiablog.com/2006/11/26/youtube-or-flash-works-...
Verizon cripples phones, trying to plug "revenue leaks."
It's important to realize that Verizon's VCast service is not internet, it is streaming media. Verizon is rolling their YouTube "Sampling" into their VCast service, which already exists. The $15 is the flat monthly rate to access all VCast media.
What you do with this information is up to you, just so long as people stop referring to the $15 fee as a YouTube subscription. Compare it to when your cable company adds a channel without charging you extra.
Isn't the point of Youtube is mindlessly surfing odd folk dancing videos from the Ukraine? Who wants an exec to choose the Youtube I watch?
-Henry
This thing is a HUGE stiff. I can't see widespread enthusiasm for paying for a corporate-selected sampling of YouTube content, especially at $15/month.
This "deal" is DOA and will be withdrawn within six months, mark my words.
It's like crap on a layer of crap. With a crappy topping.
It's funny that flat rate Internet is all the rage. There was acompany offering all-you-can-eat 128kbps Internet in 2000, and no one wanted it because the cell companies were promising higher speeds "within a year".
Now we're seeing 3G rollouts in second-tier cities at lower-than-DSL speeds, with bend-you-over rate plans, who-gives-a-shit content, and crippled phones. (I want to use my phone as a Bluetooth modem. I can't? Up yours!)
See what happens when you trust the cell carriers? Years late, half of what's promised, at twice the cost. I suspect this YouTube deal is more of the same.
Call me crazy but I think Verizon is gonna be clobbered in lawsuits since it is charging you money for something which is free. Not to mention they don't have permission from the owners/creators of the You Tube videos..
PlasmaFire-
A: If YouTube is "free", why do I already have to pay Comcast to gain access to it?
B: They have the permission of YouTube/Google, which would seem to supplant the owners of the videos once they've uploaded them.
Videos on a digital camera screen? Enjoyable. Videos on a cell phone screen? Gets old, real quick.
Wait wait... Is it , "Verizon to offer you Tube videos." or "Verizon to offer YouTube videos?"
I don't think tube videos sounds very interesting...and who the hell even uses V-cast anyway...talk about a waste of money.
Why charge $15/month? Why only allow access to some videos? Why not simply charge a flat fee for Internet access and then people can watch whatever YouTube videos they want... and also, you know, check their email.
This seems expensive and stupid. Tmobile charges $30/month for unlimited Internet. Does it really make sense to charge $15 for only a smattering of YouTube videos?