My Thoughts on Technology and Jamaica: Verizon's Free Streaming Video Platform - Herald for 5G Video Calling and Streaming Mainstream without Buckets

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Verizon's Free Streaming Video Platform - Herald for 5G Video Calling and Streaming Mainstream without Buckets

Verizon is sitting on the cusp of Greatness as they’ve decided to turn it up a Notch, Dragon Ball Z Style!!!! Folks, play the Lady Gaga song Applause real loud, as Verizon deserves a round of Applause!


Verizon Chief Financial Officer Fran Shammo has announced that the company Plans to launch a Mobile and online Video service in the Summer of 2015 as reported in the article “Verizon mulls mobile video that doesn't eat into your data cap”, published July 21, 2015 by Roger Cheng, CNET News



Their Plan involves a Separate Video Streaming Service that doesn’t dip into your Data Plan, but is instead subsidized by advertising.

Many were expecting that after Verizon had purchased AOL (America Online) for US$4.4 billion dollars as reported in the article “Verizon completes its $4.4 billion purchase of AOL”, published June 23, 2015 by Ben Fox Rubin, CNET News and “Verizon buys AOL for $4.4 billion”, published 12 May 2015 By Ben Rooney, CNN Money.

It would also help them stave off competition from T-Mobile and Sprint as well as re-invigorate the growth of their Verizon FIOS business. Verizon is doing this by creating a Streaming Platform that doesn’t require you to pay or even have a Cable TV subscription.

A good example of this is NBC Streaming services launched in conjunction with Cable Provider Comcast in December 2014 as reported “NBC Universal NBC Live Streaming Service - How TV Everywhere is American Streaming TV's Future as Comcast steps into 21st Century”.

Verizon to launch Free Streaming Video Platform - How Ad-subsidized Video Streaming avoids your Data Plan Buckets

Nothing new here as Online Video service subsidized by advertising already exist, such as CBSN that was launched by CBS in November 2014 as explained in my blog article entitled “CBSN Streaming News Portal Internationals - First Digital Streaming News Channel sponsored by Advertisers on your Browser”.

But they would be the first Telecom Provider to offer a Video Streaming Service, which he refers to as OTT (Over-The-Top) that would not subtract from your Data Plan allotments or buckets as they are called, to quote Verizon CFO Fran Shammo: “There is no one else out there who will deliver an OTT solution like the one we will launch”.

They also have Plans for a traditional online TV Streaming service that would use up your Data Plans as well as a premium pay service, again mimicking the US$5.99 CNBS All Access service launched October 2014 as reported in my blog article entitled “US$5.99 CBS All Access Live in US of A - How HBO Streaming by 2015 will beat Netflix as Jamaican Local TV and Radio Stations unprepared for Digicel and LIME TV”.

That's really for those streamers who don't like Advertising. Still, the advertising subsidized streaming of Video content is a huge deal, as this could potentially shake up the Cable TV World in a very big way!

Verizon turns it up a Notch - Why 5G will make Video Calling and Streaming Mainstream

The real innovation here is the fact that you'll be able to stream Video for Free and not dip into your Data Plan allotments aka Buckets come August 2015. The Cable TV World should fear this.

They should have expected that with the coming of 4G LTE and faster Wireless Broadband, somebody would have cooked up this crazy idea!!

With a potential worldwide audience, advertisers would be quick to jump onto this service to advertise, as such a potentially massive streaming audience mean more potential customers.

Customer will be able to stream Sports and a few shows from select Content Providers including their AOL acquisition. Verizon stand to make billion from advertising alone, both ads within the videos stream as well as on the website that hosts the Videos.

Whether they’ll have live programming such as News or it'll be just YouTube videos or videos host on Servers that they own is not totally clear. Neither is it known if Verizon harbours any Plans of getting into the eyewitness video News Business.

Especially as YouTube now has a YouTube Newswire to vet such content as explained in my Geezam blog article entitled “YouTube launches YouTube Newswire to verify Eyewitness Videos”.

Still, it sets the stage for Video Calling and Streaming to go mainstream by 2020, when Telecom Providers are expected to launch 5G Wireless Broadband.  It may also mark the final death of Television, in much the same way Streaming is slowly killing downloading as per my blog article entitled “@RIAA says Streaming beating CD Sales - Why HD Audio Physical Digital Music comeback progresses as Piracy is the Problem”.

So says the ITU (International Telecommunication Union) 5G Mission Plan for IMT-2020 for the next five (5) years as reported in my blog article entitled “ITU publishes 5G IMT-2020 Roadmap - Why US Telecom Providers, @Digicel_Jamaica and @LIMEJamaica like to travel off the beaten Path”. 

The fate of the Huffington Post and blogs such as TechCrunch and Engadget still hanging the balance! But this new free advertising subsidized streaming service that doesn’t subtract for your Data Plan will turn Verizon’s 5G Game up several Notches.

 Here’s the link:
Verizon Twitter Feed: @VerizonWireless



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