AFI BLOG: Media and Technology

The Wall Street Journal

Video Programming And Ads to Be Served On TV, Cellphones, Web
The nation’s largest phone companies sell packages of wireless phone service, Internet access and pay TV to consumers. Now they’re taking integration one step further, airing video programming — and selling ads — across all three platforms.

Content and advertising deals used to be struck separately for each platform. But Verizon Communications Inc. and AT&T Inc., for instance, have cut deals with media companies that allow them to distribute programming — from “Saturday Night Live” clips to user-generated video — to cellphone, broadband and TV customers. Recently, the phone companies have begun to sell ads across all three screens. They’re also rolling out features that link the units, such as Web-based transcripts of cellphone voice mails.

This integration, still in its early stages, is part of a broader plan to generate revenue from new services as wireless growth — the engine of the telecom industry — is beginning to slow. Both AT&T and Verizon, the majority owner of Verizon Wireless (Vodafone Group PLC of the United Kingdom owns the rest), are pursuing this “three-screen” strategy — showing ads and content on the screens of cellphones, computers and TV sets.

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