YouTube coming soon to cell phones

Source: CNET

YouTube is coming to mobile phones--or, to be more precise, a small slice of YouTube is coming to some Verizon Wireless phones.

While its explosively popular Web site is free, YouTube's phone-based version will require a $15-a-month subscription to a Verizon Wireless service called VCast. And instead of choosing what to watch from a vast library of clips, VCast users will be limited to an unspecified number of videos selected and approved by the companies.

Still, the deal, which the companies plan to announce on Tuesday, marks the mobile-phone debut of YouTube, the video-sharing service owned by Google that many say is already changing the media landscape. "Everybody carries a phone with them, but they may not have a computer," said Steve Chen, chief technology officer and a co-founder of YouTube. People can "take the phone out of their pocket while waiting for the bus" and watch a video, he added.

Verizon Wireless and YouTube said the service would be available early next month. The companies would not discuss the financial terms of their deal but said Verizon would have the exclusive rights to distribute YouTube videos on mobile phones "for a limited period of time."

"This marquee partnership is the first of many," said Kelly Liang, senior director of business development for YouTube. Liang said the company planned to introduce other such deals within the coming year.

YouTube said its editors would select short videos from its library for the Verizon Wireless service. Verizon Wireless said it would vet the videos to make sure they met the company's editorial and taste guidelines.
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"We'll select content that has the broadest appeal and the highest entertainment value," Liang said.

One question is whether the limited selection of videos on the service will undermine the basic appeal of YouTube, which has grown popular in part because users decide what they want to watch.

But Allen Weiner, a Web publishing analyst with the consulting firm Gartner, said he believed that the short bursts of escapism provided by YouTube would translate well to the mobile phone. That said, Weiner said he did not believe the deal alone would be enough of a selling point to attract new customers to Verizon.

"It's not going to be a driver" of new subscribers, Weiner said. "But it will give people who are considering the video service component something to think about."