Step aside Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon Prime Instant Video. Verizon is getting into the streaming video game.
Verizon is gearing up to launch a new mobile streaming service aimed at millennials, dubbed Go90. At this point, there's no word as to when it will be available, but Verizon has set up a Go90 page where you can sign up to find out when the free app launches.
Go90 will offer a mix of live and on-demand content, including NCAA football and basketball games, international soccer, and "exclusive live" music and comedy performances, a Verizon spokesperson told PCMag. The lineup includes The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, The Leftovers from HBO, ESPN's 30 for 30, VH1's Love and Hip Hop, and Discovery's Gold Rush as well as other popular shows from MTV, Adult Swim, Nickelodeon, Food Network, HGTV, Vice, Tastemade, Stylehaul, HuffPost Live, and Machinima.
It will also include originals from YouTube star Michelle Phan, comedian Sarah Silverman, AwesomenessTV, as well as DreamWorks TV's Shrek and Donkey, AOL's Making A Scene with James Franco, and Collective Digital Studios' Battlefield.
Go90 will be compatible with iOS and Android and available to everyone, regardless of whether you're a Verizon customer or not. The app is free but includes ads.
Verizon said Go90 is more social than other streaming services. You'll be able to follow specific shows you like, start your own "crews" to chat with other fans, easily cut and share particular segments of a show, and get crowdsourced recommendations from the community.
"In other words, Go90 is as much a social platform as it is a mobile video platform," Verizon said.
According to The Washington Post, Go90 will avoid Verizon branding, and the name is a reference to putting your phone into a 90-degree landscape mode to watch videos.
The paper also suggests the service is a way to get people to consume more data and therefore require bigger Verizon Wireless data plans, though people could presumably watch on Wi-Fi.
Verizon has been talking about an Internet TV service that caters to cord cutters for more than a year. It has announced deals with the likes of AwesomenessTV and Vice, and promised to launch by mid-2015.