Verizon Internet TV Part of Carey’s mandate i

Verizon Internet TV

Part of Carey’s mandate is to get the new service ready to ship before the end of the year. The company plans to start testing it with some subscribers as early as this summer, and bring it to one market by Q3 or Q4. However, multiple sources cautioned that the timeline could still shift. Verizon was originally looking to launch the service earlier, but had already been forced to delay it, leading to this new timeline.

Part of the reason for the delayed roll-out are technical complexities that go far beyond simply giving consumers a new set-top box. Verizon is looking to finally replace its existing QAM-based TV delivery with a complete IP-based solution. In layman’s terms, this means that the company is getting ready to ditch the way TV signals have been delivered over existing cable networks and replace it with the same technology that gets Netflix, and any other internet service, into your home.

The old-school QAM approach pushes all content, all the time, to consumers, whereas IP-based technology only delivers the channel a consumer is watching. The result will be massive cost savings for the company, and will free up a lot more bandwidth to give consumers faster internet access. It also makes it possible to use cheaper set-top-box technology, and possibly even forego the set-top altogether to deliver the same programming to third-party streaming devices or mobile screens.

http://variety.com/2016/digital/news/verizon-...201754543/