Reports say mobile video service to shut down July 31

About three years after its launch, Verizon Communications is shutting down its fledgling mobile video service go90 on July 31, shifting its focus to more established media brands within its Oath unit, according to numerous reports.

Oath includes the former internet pioneers AOL and Yahoo, which Verizon purchased in 2015 and 2017 as well as Huffington Post, TechCrunch, Tumblr, and others.

News that the telco was readying a shutdown of the service was first reported by Variety.

The demise of go90 shouldn’t come as a surprise. Oath chief Tim Armstrong said at Recode’s Code Media conference in February that the service would eventually be phased out and its content spread out across the unit’s other assets.

Verizon had high hopes for the free, ad-supported service when it launched in October 2015. But it never caught on with younger viewers and was unable to accumulate enough compelling content to attract large numbers of them.

The demise of the service falls in line with recent Verizon moves—it said last month that it would shutter plans for its own standalone over-the-top service, and instead seek an existing player that could integrate digital content from Oath.

Go90 had content deals with Awesomeness TV (in which Verizon owns a stake), Vice Media, Complex Networks (a joint venture between Verizon and Hearst), New Form and Endemol Shine North America.

According to Digiday, those content rights will revert back to the original owners.