Summer launch for Verizon online TV package?

Verizon has been securing streaming rights from television network owners in preparation for the nationwide launch of a live online TV service, according to people familiar with the matter.

The telecommunications giant plans to start selling a package with dozens of channels this summer, according to the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private information. The live, over-the-internet TV service would be a first for Verizon — separate from go90, a YouTube-like streaming-video service aimed at teens — and independent of its FiOS home TV offer, the people said.

Verizon’s preparations highlight the growing pressure to provide a cheaper, smaller package of TV networks to viewers who are turned off by a glut of programming available on traditional cable packages. Dish Network Corp. introduced a similar service, Sling TV, two years ago, and AT&T Inc.’s DirecTV Now came out late last year. Sling’s basic package costs $20 a month, while DirecTV Now starts at $35 for 60 channels. Verizon’s will probably be similarly priced, the people said.

If the Verizon service is like Dish’s or AT&T’s, it’ll be accessible through an app on set-top boxes like Apple TV or Roku, and through phones and tablets.

Rival Comcast Corp., the largest U.S. cable operator, has also been securing rights from cable networks to get the option to offer an online-TV business outside its cable territory, though the company has no current plans to go ahead with such a service, people familiar with the matter said this month.