Verizon’s recently-launched carrier-agnostic video streaming service, Go90, is apparently earning itself a decent fan-following around the country. The one interesting thing about the platform that would have even surprised the big red, is that the service is proving to be a hit even with non-Verizon subscribers. At least that’s what the carrier officially claims anyways. Speaking on Wednesday about the company’s mobile video platform at the Citi Internet, Media and Telecommunications conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, the president of product Innovation and new businesses at Verizon, Ms. Marni Walden, said that the carrier appreciates the growing popularity of the platform “because the main driver of revenue is advertising”. While Ms. Walden declined to talk numbers, reports last week seemed to suggest that the Go90 app has already been downloaded almost two million times on mobile devices since its launch.
Describing the advertising revenue from Go90 as “incremental”, Ms. Walden said that the carrier is looking at other ways to derive revenues from the service, including the introduction of subscription tiers. According to her, Verizon is looking to scale up Go90 first and foremost, but she refused to get drawn into a discussion on Verizon’s rumored Yahoo acquisition, and how that might help the carrier in its gaining more scale. “Today Go90 is more of a retail strategy”, she said, “but there’s opportunity for further monetization through licensing or wholesale”.
Seeing as Verizon really seems to be pushing Go90 as a full-fledged video streaming service with a revenue stream of its own, it becomes crucial for it to emphasize on original content, and that’s exactly what the carrier seems to be setting its mind to. Verizon is expected to soon announce two separate deals with Warner Music and Sony, to carry original content on the Go90 platform. Verizon already announced a three-year, $400 million deal with NBA a couple of months ago to carry live broadcasts of NBA, WNBA, NBA-D League and USAB games on the service. The service reportedly also has access to over 8,000 titles already, including episodes of popular television shows and over 35 exclusive original series. The carrier also has content-related partnerships with dozens of media outlets including, but not limited to, VICE News, HuffPost Live, The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, Machinima, Maker and ESPN’s 30 for 30.