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Verizon's Live TV Service To Launch Second Half of 2015

Speaking at CES, Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam this week stated that the company's "wireless first" live TV streaming service should launch sometime during the second half of 2015. According to McAdam, the offering should feature around 20 to 30 channels, and will be priced to attract a younger demographic that has grown accustomed to life without a traditional cable subscription. Verizon has been hammering out deals with broadcasters for the new service for some time, stated the CEO.

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"Millennials are not signing up for 300 channels that they have to sit in front of the TV at 8 o’clock to see a certain show," McAdam stated. "(Our service) is probably going to be a 20- or 30-channel offering, and the content that we see will be very compelling," claims the CEO.

Verizon is fresh off the heels of a shuttered streaming video joint venture with RedBox that was designed to challenge Netflix but failed to get much consumer attention. This effort, in contrast, will be heavily aimed first and foremost at Verizon's LTE video customers.

At the product's core will be Intel's abandoned OnCue technology platform, which Intel sold to Verizon about a year ago after Intel struggled to secure broadcaster licensing rights. Pricing or whether this service will count against Verizon's LTE usage caps has yet to be announced, but the effort joins a crowded lineup of live streaming TV offerings to be unveiled this year.
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karpodiem
Hail to The Victors
Premium Member
join:2008-05-20
Troy, MI

karpodiem

Premium Member

But but but

Will someone think of the caps!?!

ITALIAN926
join:2003-08-16

ITALIAN926

Member

Re: But but but

Of course not, this is totally being invented to push people caps to its limits.
Personally, I cant watch any extended TV on my smartphone. Youtube clips are one thing for a minute or so, but to watch a full show or movie? No Fn way, its terribly annoying.

hey ! If you bring the smartphone right against your eyeballs, you have an instant 200" HDTV.
rradina
join:2000-08-08
Chesterfield, MO

1 recommendation

rradina

Member

Re: But but but

What if Verizon exempts this traffic from caps? I can just smell it happening.

karpodiem
Hail to The Victors
Premium Member
join:2008-05-20
Troy, MI

karpodiem

Premium Member

Re: But but but

you are correct, but I believe they are using the LTE Multicast spectrum for this...I recall them putting aside this spectrum for broadcast awhile ago. I'm sure it will be limited to people on a postpaid non-unlimited 'charge you more for everything' dataplan.

Thanks VZW, but I'll use Sling TV when it comes out.

neill6705
join:2014-08-09

neill6705 to rradina

Member

to rradina
I'm guessing that's what will happen. I remember AT&T had a streaming video service a while back and that was exempt if I recall correctly.
webcobbler
join:2013-03-09
Rumson, NJ

webcobbler to ITALIAN926

Member

to ITALIAN926
I agree. I love my TV. I do DVR a lot. But I love my TV and AVR setup. I wouldn't change that for TV on a tablet for anything.
JPL
Premium Member
join:2007-04-04
Downingtown, PA

JPL

Premium Member

Re: But but but

said by webcobbler:

I agree. I love my TV. I do DVR a lot. But I love my TV and AVR setup. I wouldn't change that for TV on a tablet for anything.

The thing is - this deal isn't aimed at you. Or at me. But for 20 something's? Absolutely. They're right about the viewing habits of teenagers and 20-somethings. Two of my kids are teenagers, and they do 90% of their watching on their ipods. Know what got my two older kids really jazzed about my TV setup? Was it the Quantum DVR which can record 6 things at once? Nope. Was it all that recording space? Nope. Know what it was? When they discovered we had a YouTube widget. Not kidding about that - they were beside themselves with giddiness over that.

Will those patterns continue as they age? I seriously doubt it. I have a sense that when you get married and have a family, the notion of having individual streaming devices for all video viewing (especially at $20 per feed) won't be all that desirable. But for that current demographic? Absolutely. This move makes total sense.

ev
@74.140.91.x

ev to karpodiem

Anon

to karpodiem
What caps? This thing won't have caps. Caps are for Verizon's competitors... like Dish's fresh new Sling offering.

The LTE Broadcast spec was designed to deliver content similar to a traditional one-to-many broadcast channel. It's essentially IP multicast. NOT a dedicated link a la Netflix. Huge difference.

Cthen
Premium Member
join:2004-08-01
Detroit, MI

Cthen

Premium Member

Pricey?

quote:
the offering should feature around $20 to $30 channels
Is that per channel or the whole line up? Seems it's quite steep if it's per channel.

telcodad
MVM
join:2011-09-16
Lincroft, NJ

telcodad

MVM

Re: Pricey?

said by Cthen:

quote:
the offering should feature around $20 to $30 channels
Is that per channel or the whole line up? Seems it's quite steep if it's per channel.

The dollar signs are a typo - that should just say "... the offering should feature around 20 to 30 channels, ..."

The pricing is yet to be determined.
smk11
join:2014-11-12

smk11

Member

Caps won't kill LTE-B, the price will

This should be LTE-B (Broadcast) so there should be no caps. I'm guessing $15-$20/month for the service. The only people who will see value will be fixed LTE users who only have satellite.
elray
join:2000-12-16
Santa Monica, CA

elray

Member

Re: Caps won't kill LTE-B, the price will

The price won't kill it.

The absolute ineptitude of the marketer will.

He's trying to sell Live TV to millenials, whom he admits don't watch Live TV.

ev
@74.140.91.x

ev

Anon

Re: Caps won't kill LTE-B, the price will

BINGO!!

aaronwt
Premium Member
join:2004-11-07
Woodbridge, VA

aaronwt

Premium Member

Is this really going to be live TV?

if so, why would anyone want to watch Tv without a way to pause, rew, FF, etc? It would be like going back in time and watching Tv the way it was done decades ago.
chrisgo1
join:2005-03-16
Orlando, FL

chrisgo1

Member

Pricing will kill this doesn't Verizon get this

For this demographic, bittorrent theft is so commonplace and easy to do (as well as socially acceptable) that I seriously doubt Verizon will penetrate this market. Pricing will never be what is considered cheap enough and profitable at the same time. It would be interesting to see if this generation moves to a paid model as they age and have more pressing concerns.
mmay149q
Premium Member
join:2009-03-05
Dallas, TX

mmay149q

Premium Member

Re: Pricing will kill this doesn't Verizon get this

Since I'm technically part of that demographic (born in 1984) I'm going to have to say actually we will move to paid models, because if we don't we're going to be paying around $300 a month for internet service because of things like 10 - 40GB Bluray files, and 250GB + overage caps, either that or we're going to revert to being total WiFi hackers, or downloading what we want from HotSpots or from work... If we can get away with it...

But in all honesty, you're right, my demographic doesn't want to just watch things on TV, or we don't have time too, we'll watch it on whatever we can get our hands on if we're that interested, I mean personally I hate watching TV Shows on my 5.7 inch Android phone, but when I'm not home, or have to work massive OT, how do you think I stay in the loop? Streaming website via my 4G...

Personally I think all these companies are going to end up shooting themselves in the foot with the "Cap everything" plan and my/younger than me's demographics because they keep launching services for "view your shows/movies" everywhere that absolutely fall flat on their face, and then they look at Netflix and are like "How are you making money this way?!?!" and can't understand it, I mean my 20 year old nephew refuses to have a smart phone, and literally has a 90's flip phone because of the stupid things these companies are doing... Think about that for a second, someone who during their teens/early 20's is already saying "I refuse to buy a smart phone" These companies are already disencouraging today's youth to purchase the newest and best tech...
thetick
join:2009-06-22
White Plains, NY

thetick

Member

Re: Pricing will kill this doesn't Verizon get this

said by mmay149q:

..... I mean my 20 year old nephew refuses to have a smart phone, and literally has a 90's flip phone because of the stupid things these companies are doing... Think about that for a second, someone who during their teens/early 20's is already saying "I refuse to buy a smart phone" These companies are already disencouraging today's youth to purchase the newest and best tech...



Yes and I have Amish cousins who don't have electricity at home but they have a smartphone for the family business. Your nephew is about .000001% of the market so his choice is irreverent to cell phone/service providers. You should know if one gets Jitterbug there are really big defaults fonts on those flip phone.
mmay149q
Premium Member
join:2009-03-05
Dallas, TX

mmay149q

Premium Member

Re: Pricing will kill this doesn't Verizon get this

You say he's .0000001% but yet how do you know that's not the next trend? This is just today, what about 10 - 20 years from now? Kids these days dress like kids from the 80's or 90's, and do hair cuts that resemble them as well, why wouldn't they start using "vintage phones" to follow suit because of stupidity with the plans? And using a smart phone becoming "not cool or trendy" because smart phones "are only for work, and not worth buying"?

My generation and up will be born on the internet, we utilize the internet more than any generation for a multitude of uses, and we want the ability to utilize apps and services without being charged an arm and a leg for it, or being sent to a crawling speed of dial up (which most kids now a days doesn't even know the struggle of) that's the point of having a data plan on your phone, and being able to utilize a smart phone to do anything anywhere.

Now with most phones just being IP phones with VoIP services anyway, I would like to see an argument that these caps are actually in violation since all voice gets sent via the internet anyway that these companies are discriminating against all other data that doesn't belong to them, especially once Verizon/Sprint finalize moving all of the 2G/3G services off CDMA and onto the LTE 4G technologies that allow you to browse and surf at the same time...

I think if someone actually brought that point up during Net Neutrality debates because it's Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile all choosing their VoIP service over the likes of Google, Skype, etc we could have a real chance of getting these caps reversed and gotten rid of (or at least on phone plans, not on MiFi's or 4G hotspots) as that's literally the case in my opinion...