NEW YORK (Reuters) - Verizon Wireless said on Monday it will offer music video downloads from Warner Music Group, opening up a new potential source of revenue for the No. 2 U.S. mobile provider.
Verizon Wireless, a venture of Verizon Communications and Vodafone Group Plc , will provide the videos as part of V Cast, a high-speed video news, entertainment and games service it will introduce on Tuesday.
Verizon, the first to offer U.S. video services to mobile phones with data speeds similar to home computers, will charge $3.99 for each music video download on top of the $15 a month it plans to charge for V Cast.
Mobile providers around the world see third generation (3G) data services, such as video downloads and Web surfing, as an alternative way to keep growing revenue as the price of mobile phone calls continues to decline. Verizon's V Cast was first announced earlier this month at the Consumer Electronics Show.
Verizon and Warner would not comment on the financial terms of their agreement nor on profit targets for the services.
Privately held Warner Music said the deal with Verizon does not prevent it from selling its content to Verizon's rivals, which include Sprint and Cingular Wireless .
"We believe services like V Cast, which employ 3G technology will quickly become one of the most important and popular distribution platforms for music," said Warner Music's vice president of Internet strategy Michael Nash,
Verizon will initially provide music downloads from performers including Sean Paul and My Chemical Romance. It plans to update its repertoire at least once a week and make about 12 videos available at any one time.
Verizon will also sell games to V Cast customers from providers such as Jamdat Mobile Inc. and Gameloft for prices varying from about $2.99 for a month's use and up to $9.99 for unlimited use.
It announced plans on Jan. 10 to provide news and entertainment content from companies such as NBC, owned by General Electric and News Corp .
The service will work on the LG VZ8000 phone from LG Electronics , which will cost $199.99, and the a890 from Samsung Electronics Co. , which will sell for $249.99 and the CDM8940 phone from UTStarcom which will cost $229.99.
The phone prices assume customers apply for $70 rebates.
Copyright © 2005 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. Originally appearing in ExtremeTech.
