Stream on! NBCUniversal’s Peacock and YouTube Premium are the two newest streaming options Verizon is pitching to wireless customers. The carrier continues to build on its strategy of using special promos on content services to generate incremental revenue — and, ideally, boost customer loyalty.
Verizon will offer YouTube Premium as one of its monthly myPlan perks, letting customers sign up to the service for $10/month, which represents a 30% savings off the regular $13.99/month price. With YouTube Premium, users can watch videos ad-free and can download videos to watch later offline, including full access to YouTube Music Premium. The new perk is available starting May 30, and Verizon has exclusive U.S. rights in the wireless segment to market the YouTube Premium package in this way.
Verizon also announced that Peacock is joining Verizon’s +play content hub. It’s not discounted per se: Through +play, regular pricing applies for Peacock Premium with ads at $5.99/month (going up to $7.99 starting in July) and Premium Plus at $11.99/month (rising to $13.99). Via Verizon’s myPlan, you can pay $10/month for a $15/month credit toward the +play services — so that’s a $5 price break, but it only makes sense if you subscribe to another service in addition to Peacock.
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Current myPlan perks do give Verizon wireless customers discounts on a Netflix-Max with ads bundle for $10/month (a 40% savings) and a Disney bundle of Disney+ (no ads), Hulu (with ads) and ESPN+ for $10/month (which is 33% less than a package Disney offers that includes Disney+ with ads). In addition, Verizon is currently offering six months of the Disney bundle for no extra charge to customers who switch to either the Unlimited Plus or Unlimited Ultimate plan.
Under such reseller deals, Verizon typically pays a per-subscriber wholesale rate to its partners.To date, Verizon has signed up 13 million video subscribers overall, according to Frank Boulben, chief revenue officer for Verizon Consumer Group.
“Customers want three things in their wireless plans: control, flexibility and choice,” Boulben said. “They want to be able to change their minds every month — they don’t want to be locked in for two years.” He also noted that there’s value in being able to pay for multiple streamers on a single bill.
Other subscription add-ons available through Verizon’s myPlan for $10/month each are: Apple One (Apple TV+, Apple Music, Apple Arcade and iCloud+), Apple Music Family, Walmart+ (which includes Paramount+), 100 gigabytes/month of mobile hotspot data, and unlimited cloud storage.
Also Tuesday, Verizon announced the Ultimate Phone Upgrade program, which gives customers on the Unlimited Ultimate wireless plan its best phone and device promos when they trade in an older one.
