According to the recent reports, Netflix is about to face a strong competition from Verizon which is planning to introduce a video streaming service, the coming year.
Verizon is currently in talks with potential programming partners for developing a service that will be aimed to those users who do not own Verizon’s FiOS and broadband package. Hence the targeted audience of Verizon for now is expected to be 85 million people. FiOS already has 5 million subscribers.
However the details about the potential service are quite unclear. One of the sources told Reuters that the “focus would be packages of movies similar to Liberty Media’s Starz Play and Viacom’s Epix or could involve children’s programming from a partner such as Walt Disney Co. or Viacom.” And as far as pricing is concerned: “Most likely, Verizon would want to price any such service competitively with Netflix,” the report says.
The sources have also shed some light on the fact that Verizon has been involved in discussions with the companies that may provide appropriate content for such companies, since past two years. The only cause of concern with the companies providing the content is the fear that it may harm their ties with firms Verizon is planning on competing with.
Netflix should be specifically perturbed with the news of fresh competition from Verizon as it has observed a downhill road in this year ever since it decided to raise the prices in July. The stocks of the company are not being traded at roughly around $68 which are even less than the quarter of its peak price right before the announcement happened.
