BOSTON – Calling it “one of the most important announcements for us this year,” Verizon president and CEO Dan Mead used The Cable Show to launch a brand new video portal, Viewdini, noting rival Comcast is its first partner.
The new video portal creates a new entertainment choice for consumers by making it simple to search and view movies, television shows, and other video on mobile devices, said Mead. Viewdini “leverages the power of Verizon Wireless' 4G LTE network, streamlining access to videos from a wide range of content providers, including cable operators, web sites and other popular video sources,” reads the press release.
Comcast Xfinity, Hulu Plus, mSpot and Netflix are among the participants at launch, with more including Verizon FiOS expected to be added soon.
"Working with a wide range of providers, we're giving our customers a simple and intuitive way to find shows, movies and other videos from the sources they have relationships with and discover new sources of video as well,” said Mead.
(Cartt.ca asked a Verizon official whether or not it would license the technology to other carriers and after he said, basically, "hold on, we just launched," said yes, the company would certainly license it to other foreign operators.)
Viewdini, on display this morning in the Comcast booth on the Cable Show floor, acts as a mobile video aggregator that makes it easy for users to search thousands of titles from some of the web's leading content providers like Netflix, Hulu Plus, mSpot, TV sites, movie studios, Comcast's Xfinity TV, Verizon FiOS and cable operators.
By searching for a title, topic, or star's name, Viewdini will let customers know which services have mobile video for streaming, and whether it is available at no additional charge, by subscription, to rent or for purchase. A simple click will also provide related content and information like cast and crew info and links to similar titles.
Viewdini will be available to Verizon Wireless customers with 4G LTE Android devices later this month, with support for other operating systems expected to be added soon. The application can be downloaded from the Google Play store, and is free to customers.
