LOS ANGELES -- Milo Ventimiglia has starred in Gilmore Girls, Heroes and a handful of other popular TV shows and movies. But in 2016, the actor is dropping his talents into your pocket.
On Thursday, Ventimiglia joined Verizon's mobile-first platform go90 and YouTube network StyleHaul at the Consumer Electronics Show to announce his new exclusively mobile original series Relationship Status.
SEE ALSO: StyleHaul partners with Go90 to create exclusive content for app
Available on go90 later this spring, the show -- which Ventimiglia executive produced with James Frey -- follows an "interweaving cast of 20-to-30 somethings in New York and Los Angeles as they navigate love and friendships all told through the lens of social storytelling optimized for mobile consumption."
The news came just a day after Verizon and Sony Music announced a multi-year agreement to distribute a slate of original video content programming from Sony Music through the go90 mobile platform.
Both announcements -- made at CES -- underscore Verizon's efforts to expand to its library of millennial-geared content to attract mobile-first, millennial audiences. But will their efforts work?
Mobile is indeed where a certain audience is consuming content. In 2016, research firm eMarketer estimates U.S. adults will spend an average of 3 hours and 8 minutes per day on mobile devices, excluding voice activities. The firm's research suggests Millennials are also the most active video viewers of any U.S. age group.
And Verizon is hoping the power of both digital influencers and traditional celebrities will help go90 dominate the mobile video landscape.
In October, Verizon threw an elaborate start-studded launch party for go90 at Beverly Hills Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts. There, Kanye West performed, and celebrities including John Legend, Shaun White and Freida Pinto showed up to support the product.
Kanye West performing at the go90 launch party. pic.twitter.com/AJYTFh93ll— Kion Sanders (@kionsanders) September 25, 2015
Verizon continued to bring its A game in 2015 by partnering up with digital entertainment players such as StyleHaul, pop culture network DanceOn, AwesomenessTV's millennial mom network Awestruck and Disney-owned Maker Studios. That gave the free on-demand video service access to everything from Star Wars inspired series from Maker creators to Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi and Jennifer "JWoww" new show Moms With Attitude.
Celebrities -- both traditional and digital -- said they are drawn to the diversity of content they can create for go90.
"It was the right platform for the show given the subject matter of what we were telling in the stories, which is dating in the digital age," Ventimiglia told Mashable in a phone interview ahead of the announcement. "I'm really just very excited about not only the creative side of telling the story, but also the platform being mobile."
Tony Valenzuela and Jarrett Sleeper, the creators behind supernatural adventure series The Fourth Door series, told Mashable at Stream Con that they think go90 may be the next YouTube.
"I think the challenge for technology companies is to tell a great story with the applications they create," Valenzuela said. "What's key to making that happen is curation. YouTube went from being very curated, and really creating a space, to scaling quickly. Go90 is the return of creation."
Still, some are skeptical as to whether go90 can thrive, despite a heavy shift toward mobile consumption.
"Two of my larger issues that I have with Verizon’s mobile service is this laser focus on millennials and the 'mobile only' restriction," Mike Goodman, director of Digital Media Strategies, told Mashable. "The reality is ... you are restricting yourself by only targeting millennials and restricting the growth of the product by saying you are mobile only."
Goodman also said go90 needs to do a better job marketing itself.
"I think go90 definitely has an awareness issue -- to the best of my knowledge I haven’t seen much marketing," he added. "If you don’t have awareness, you don’t have usage. They can do whatever deals they want, but this is not a case of 'if you build it they will come.' People have to hear about it and know what it is then go90 has a chance."
Dave Altarescu, director of marketing for go90, is optimistic about the platform's future.
"There’s a lot more that’s going to continue to happen on Go90," he told Mashable in a recent interview. "As this all comes out, we are going to be able to really push the envelope and change the way people consume all this content."