Verizon wants to grab the attention of millennials, but they aren’t trying to sell phone subscription plans.
Instead, Verizon has created Go90, a mobile video platform aimed to capture a demographic fleeing cable subscriptions and watching more video on mobile.
The app, launched on Thursday, will be ad-supported and available to anyone who wants to download the app, not just Verizon customers.
With Go90, Verizon aims to build a “distribution platform for premium content,” according to CNBC.
As millennials shun a cable package for a Netflix subscription or YouTube, Verizon wants to make Go90 the alternative of choice. Their website for the app is aggressively millennial-targeted.
“Go90 to watch, cut & share all the awesome,” the tagline runs on the website. The color scheme looks lifted from Saved by the Bell.
Verizon isn’t worried about anything outside mobile viewing; it has no plans to connect Go90 to another screen. It won’t function as a substitute for Netflix or cable outside a user’s smartphone.
The death of cable among millennials might be premature anyway; when they start families, they return to cable.
In any case, Go90 is making a play with strong content from the start: they’re partnering with MTV, Comedy Central, Discovery, Vice, and ESPN among others, along with live professional sports.
