Sources: Verizon plans to start selling a live online TV package with dozens of channels this summer, separate from go90
Verizon Communications Inc. has been securing streaming rights from television network owners in preparation for the nationwide launch of a live online TV service, according to people familiar with the matter.
Context & Ripple Effects
This report slots into Verizon's multi-year push to build a video business alongside its network: after launching Go90 in 2015 as a free, ad-supported mobile app carrying shows from AOL, Vice Media and Viacom (Go90's free launch), it deepened the short-form bet with a $159M stake in AwesomenessTV in 2016 ($159M AwesomenessTV stake). A paid, nationwide live-channel package is a different product class entirely — which is why the company stresses it sits separate from go90.
First-order effects
- Television network owners gain a new nationwide bidder for streaming rights, strengthening their hand in every carriage negotiation as Verizon secures licenses ahead of the summer launch.
- Verizon's own portfolio splits in two: go90 remains the free, ad-supported short-form play while the new package becomes its first paid live-TV offering aimed at cord-cutters.
Second-order effects
- Rights costs are the pressure point — the same licensing complexity that Verizon was still working through months later, when sources said the launch had slipped to Spring 2018 at the earliest (delayed to Spring 2018), signals how expensive and slow these deals are for any new entrant.
- Every distributor now bidding for those same network streams faces a carrier with both content money and its own pipe to the customer, raising the price of staying out of streaming bundles.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, carriers stop building video services alone and become platforms for others' TV: by mid-2018 Verizon was already seeking a Google or Apple partner to deliver TV over 5G homes in LA and Sacramento (Google or Apple 5G TV partnership), suggesting the owned-service route gives way to partnerships at scale.
The trend: Telecom carriers are moving up the video stack — from free ad-supported apps to licensed live-TV bundles to partnered 5G delivery — turning network operators into TV distributors.