Verizon has reportedly reiterated that it is still working on new over-the-top (OTT) services which had previously been expected to launch in Spring of this year. For those who may not be aware, OTT typically refers to services or products offered in addition to, or over the top of, what is generally made available by the company. In this case, Verizon has been expected to launch a new video service since early last year. That would be delivered either over Verizon’s own network or others and is expected to be made available on either mobile connections or over broadband connections. More directly, the services to be offered by Verizon would likely compete with others that are already on the market, such as Amazon’s Prime Video or Netflix.
As alluded to above, the majority of the speculation surrounding any kind of OTT product or service from the mobile carrier has centered around streaming media services of some kind. That makes sense since the company is currently only serving as a conduit to those other providers. It makes even more sense with consideration for the amount of money the company has spent on licensing content already – reportedly around $4 to $5 billion. That’s a substantial amount of money and, if that’s really how much it has spent, the company already has plenty of incentive for wanting to get its own streaming services up and running sooner rather than later. However, its OTT services could extend beyond basic media, too. In fact, according to the source, Verizon has also invested its efforts into work on connected home products and services, which could ultimately be tied in with a streaming service either directly or otherwise.
Unfortunately, while it’s possible to speculate, Verizon has still not made any official announcements about what it plans to offer. Moreover, there is a chance that no such announcement will be made until just before the service or services launch – likely in order to keep any distinct ideas or technologies for streaming services from being used elsewhere before the company has a chance to bring them to market. The company hasn’t provided any additional information with regard to any time frame at all or for what the costs will be.