Newsletter
Verizon’s upcoming live TV streaming service looks set to be released in spring of 2018. Initial rumors surrounding Verizon’s streaming service stated that it would launch towards the beginning of this past summer, but the date was later said to have been delayed to the fall. Now, though, it appears the company is struggling to prepare everything in time and, according to a new Bloomberg report, the wireless carrier has now delayed the live TV service for a third time to the spring of next year.
Verizon appears to be having trouble getting its hands on the necessary streaming rights, something that along with a number of staff shuffles and difficulties with the required technology has delayed the launch significantly. The company’s goal for the new service looks to be a replacement for its traditional cable TV offering. By allowing people to utilize their broadband connection in order to access live TV, the company’s reliance on a cable network would be reduced, something that should also prove much less costly for the carrier. Not only this, but signing and connecting customers up to the new streaming product would also be much simpler than with its current cable offerings. The company has previously made a foray into streaming with its Go90 service, a product that offers original content supported by ads but has underperformed overall. Despite this, with the new live TV service, Verizon is initially expected to follow in the steps of Go90 by offering an ad-supported model, but other premium models that remove ads are also a possibility. Nonetheless, when the service eventually goes live, it will count the likes of DirecTV Now and YouTube TV among its competitors, meaning it could be an uphill battle for the new offering.
Verizon appears to be focusing on a future as a content provider in the wake of increased competition in the wireless market, where a rumored merger of T-Mobile and Sprint could prove critical for the red carrier. Once the company launches its new streaming service next year, it’s likely that it will be playing catch-up for some time, but with Verizon’s vision of being a content provider seemingly set in stone, the carrier will likely throw everything it has at the new service in order to make it a success and avoid repeating the same mistakes it made with Go90.