Verizon MVNO Amp'd Mobile said it will start selling its mobile content offerings to Japanese carrier KDDI. Vivendi's Universal Music Group and Viacom's MTV Networks are financial backers of Amp'd. The service, called "Amp'd Live," will include American film clips, music videos, sports highlights and other content. Amp'd licenses most of the content but produces a bit of it themselves too. KDDI will reportedly take a 10 percent cut of each content sale for handling and billing, while Amp'd will share the rest with its content providers. Amp'd has a similar content brokering deal with Canadian carrier Telus.
There certainly is a higher demand for mobile content in Japan, but the move from Amp'd is sure to elicit comparisons to the recently shut down Mobile ESPN MVNO. Mobile ESPN is looking to reinvent itself as a content broker, much like Amp'd is doing in Japan. So, is this is the fate of all MVNOs?
For more on Amp'd Mobile's move to Japan:
- see this WSJ article (sub. req.)