Verizon’s Standalone TV Streaming Service Canceled

Verizon confirmed a long time ago that it’s also developing its own standalone online TV streaming service but we haven’t heard much about it since. The streaming service would have be a competitor to the likes of Sling TV by Dish and PlayStation Vue by Sony. However, it has been reported over the past couple of years that the project keeps getting delayed and now it seems that Verizon has decided to cancel the service altogether even before it was launched.

Verizon actually bought the technology for a standalone streaming service that Intel created but never launched. It had made that acquisition with the goal of launching its own service down the line. The last we heard about a potential launch of this service was back in late 2017 when it was claimed that Verizon was aiming for a spring 2018 launch.

It was later reported that Verizon’s service was going to offer themed channels which would have resulted in separate standalone apps for news, entertainment, sports, etc. The model would have been different to that of existing online streaming services which are somewhat comparable to conventional cable.

Verizon has now reportedly decided to cancel its online streaming service and will partner with an unspecified existing service to distribute content from its many Oath brands. “By the time we launch in fourth quarter, we will have a partner picked out and we’ll integrate our Oath assets into the linear assets that they have and bring the full package to customers,” Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam said in an interview earlier this week.

So basically, the company has gone from being a potential contender in this market to a content provider.

Adnan Farooqui
Categories: Web
Tags: Entertainment, Verizon