An inside look at Verizon's mobile-first social entertainment platform Go90

Found Remote: Multichannel Networks (MCNs) are popular in theory, but haven’t really taken off when included in channel offerings on OTT platforms. Why is Go90 so invested in these?

Jerry Rizzo: We are not only invested in the best of MCN shows, but the best of prime time TV and the best of live events. We’ve done a lot of ethnographic research while developing go90 and MCN or, what we tend to call, “Best of the Web” popularity has soared, largely driven by Millennials and Gen-Z. We’re bringing int what’s most popular on the web today as well as adding hundreds of hours of exclusives and originals from among 9 of the top 15 most viewed web shows available go90. Most importantly, we are bringing premium content to users while curating a highly coveted and concentrated audience of young viewers for ad partners. If you look at this generation, 71% are consuming video on mobile first .

FR: Why make this service free when people would likely be willing to pay for it?

JR: We want to largely reduce the friction that currently exists in the pay-tv industry for not just Verizon Wireless users, but for all users across all carriers who desire the content and interactions that go90 will offer. If you want sports, if you want prime time, if you want the best of the web, you can have that. Additionally, brands and advertisers are having a tough time reaching this segment and we think an ad-sponsored model is one way to ease that.

FR: What makes Verizon so confident that millennials – with so many content options – will actually use Go90?

JR: We feel we’ve brought together an offering that differentiates go90 from anything else that’s been offered before. Not only is the content pairing unique, but the “Cut and Share”, “Share Out” and “Crews” social entertainment components also introduce something, we feel, is a good fit for today’s Milliennial viewing habits. Seamless combining best of web, prime time TV and live content in one app with conversation, sharing and community exactly maps to what these customers want to do. (Cut and Share: Create shareable clips and highlights from programs. Share Out: Share clips and highlights on go90 or out to social networks. Crews: These are special interest groups created by go90 users around favorite shows or interests that become forums for discussions and engines for discovery.)

FR: There are a lot of social features part of the service that integrate chatting, social sharing, and content recommendations. How can users do all of these things on a single device – especially when it’s a mobile device?

JR: A super clean and some have said familiar user interface makes it easy. Despite the number of capabilities users are able to take advantage of in-app, go90 makes it very simple to explore, discover and share. When we focused grouped the app with teens, they knew exactly what to do within seconds. This mobile-first generation that has an appetite for what go90 will be offering, vaguely remembers or have never really experienced a world without smartphones and apps, but we also developed an interface that pulls together familiar flows from apps currently in the market.

FR: Why were network groups like Viacom and Scripps so excited about Go90 versus all of the other OTT and streaming offerings they’re a part of?

JR: If you look at the value chain in the pay-tv industry, it’s broken. We’re seeing dwindling youth audiences, creators are losing relevancy, brands are finding it harder to reach the emerging audiences and consumers are frustrated with barriers to content. The conversations become much easier when you start solving for this broken value chain together.

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