Verizon reportedly eyes spring 2018 as new launch date for TV streaming service

Verizon continues to have a rough time getting a streaming service off the ground so that it can compete with the likes of Dish's Sling TV, Google's YouTube TV and Sony's PlayStation Vue. 

It's already missed the originally expected launch date of last summer, and now anonymous sources who spoke with Bloomberg said the service likely won't launch until sometime in spring of 2018.

Even that date may change, though, as Verizon is still embroiled in the painful negotiations over rights and compensation that happen behind the scenes of every one of these services. 

The sources involved say the "delays in the project have created the impression of a strategic drift."

Each new delay sets Verizon further back. Even so, the report notes that the continued delays haven't kept Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam from believing that it's "absolutely critical" for Verizon to own its own streaming platform in the increasingly "crowded field" of internet-based TV.

Verizon hasn't had much luck with this kind of thing in general. Consider its YouTube competitor Go90. The millennial-focused service never managed to gain a strong following, leading to the layoff of 155 employees only a little more than a year after Verizon first announced it. 

Adding to the worries, as Variety reported, last month Verizon announced that Marni Walden, its media chief, would be stepping down in February of next year.

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