Verizon Is Close to Apple, Google Deals for 5G TV -- Bloomberg

Excerpts:

"Verizon Communications Inc. announced deals making Apple Inc. and Google its first video providers for a superfast 5G wireless service the company plans to launch in four cities later this year.

The home broadband service will debut in Los Angeles, Houston and Sacramento, California, as well as the newly announced fourth city of Indianapolis, Verizon said Tuesday in a statement. With the introduction, Verizon will provide 5G customers either a free Apple TV box or free subscription to Google’s YouTube TV app for live television service, according to people familiar with the plan.
[...]
Verizon Chairman Lowell McAdam, who handed the title of chief executive officer over to Hans Vestberg this month, staked out a different path than AT&T and Comcast, which have acquired movies and TV programming by spending billions purchasing media companies. McAdam chose to develop a mobile media and advertising venture through the purchase of AOL and Yahoo! For video entertainment, he’s seeking allies, not assets.

“It’s our belief that we’re positioned perfectly to have the partnerships that we need to be successful,” McAdam said on an earnings conference call last month when he addressed the 5G video plan. “We’re not going to be owning content, so we’re not going to be competing with other content providers. We’re going to be their best partner from a distribution perspective.”"

Verizon Is Close to Apple, Google Deals for 5G TV -- Bloomberg