A telecommunications system that supports the provision of video messaging, yet maintains compatibility and operation with user equipment that is not capable of processing, receiving or rendering video content. Based on the type of user equipment, as well as user selected options, network configurations and status, and class-of-service characteristics, the telecommunications systems can revise the manner in which content is provided to the user equipment. Variations in the content provision include providing synchronized audio and video content, audio content only, video content only, video content with closed-captioning and closed-captioning only.