News
Look Out, Netflix! Her Comes
Verizon & Redbox!
By Swanni
Washington, D.C. (December 8,
2011) -- Verizon may be planning
to launch a service next spring that would compete directly with
Netflix and could involve a partnership with Redbox, according
to several news reports.
Reuters reported Tuesday that Verizon was negotiating agreements
with media companies for the right to stream their content. The
wire service added that Verizon was interested in launching a
streaming offering in areas outside of its FiOS TV markets. For
instance, if you could not subscribe to FiOS where you live, you
could subscribe to Verizon's Netflix-like streaming service.
And TechCrunch, the AOL tech site, reports this morning that
Verizon is also planning a partnership with the kiosk company,
Redbox, to launch a streaming service in May of 2012. Redbox,
which now rents DVDs and Blu-ray discs for $1-$1.50 a night, has
been vague about its future streaming plans. But the Verizon
partnership could be part of the company's plan to compete
directly with Netflix in both the hard media and streaming
categories.
TechCrunch says the Verizon/Redbox service is being called
"Project Zoetrope" internally and it will be both a subscription
and streaming service available on such platforms as Google TV,
XBox, Roku, Android, iOS and perhaps Blu-ray players.
The web site says the service would stream in both SD and HD in
each device. Pricing would be monthly and it could include a
combination of renting hard media discs and streaming videos,
much like Netflix.
