Verizon customers have been upping their consumption of Blip.tv shows on Verizon's cable video-on-demand service and that's one of the reasons the telco is now offering shows from the video-sharing site to its DVR customers, Verizon's Garrett Rieman told Beet.TV at a Blip.tv event in New York recently.
The news of the expanded partnership came as part of a slew of wide-reaching deals Blip.tv struck with partners like NBC Local Media, Roku and YouTube. Those deals will extend the reach of blip.tv shows to 80% of the video Internet, up from half, the company says.
The existing Verizon deal has been a fruitful one already since blip.tv shows have proven to be a retention tool, said Rieman, who helps manage Verizon's VOD offering. "We believe that niche video keeps customers. Everyone can program to the masses and everyone is going to have the core product. Where you keep customers is with blip.tv and Howcast that speaks to them as individuals and is a retention tool for us," he said. In a blog post, Verizon said it's the only traditional video provider offering Blip.tv shows. The telco also offers content from DailyMotion and Veoh on its DVR service.
The new Internet TV deals gives Verizon customers the ability to watch and search for streamed Internet videos directly on their TV sets. Because more Web shows are being watched on big-screen TVs, expect the quality of production to become more important.
Daisy Whitney, Senior Producer
