Warner Bros. has signed a new distribution deal with Verizon’s free Go90 video service that will make the platform the exclusive home for “Veronica Mars,” “Fringe” and a handful of other series.
The deal with Verizon’s ad-supported Go90 platform includes series “Almost Human,” “Babylon 5,” “Believe,” “Stalker” and “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.” All shows will be available starting tomorrow except for “Veronica Mars,” which will hit Go90 in May.
“This order represents our commitment to a data-driven programming strategy that marries popular traditional series with our originals and organizes them into 4-5 key audience-specific networks as a way to super serve our audiences; these series are a great fit for our go90 Saga network,” said Chip Canter, Verizon’s general manager of digital entertainment, in a statement.
"We anticipate these series will expand and build on Go90's fast-growing user base," said Ken Werner, president of WB Domestic Television Distribution, in a statement.
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The exclusive content is an important catch for Go90—though arguably it’s likely becoming easier to license existing TV content as SVOD bigs like Netflix and Amazon are focusing more on original series and films—but questions still remain about how fast the user base for Go90 is actually growing.
Last week, Business Insider posted a report speaking to Verizon insiders about the struggles for Go90 since it launched in 2015. According to the report, Go90 quickly burned through a $200 million content budget after its launch. And Verizon reportedly spent $80 million just on launch marketing for the service.
Yet analysts have noted that Go90 is practically non-existent at this point in terms of registering with the millennial audience it’s targeting and in terms of winning viewers in an ever-growing field of online video services.
Still, Verizon continues to put its effort and confidence into Go90. Last week, the company announced a series of updates to the Go90 mobile app. Canter said the imminent updates are intended to enhance “content discovery, programming and merchandising through design, deeper and broader algorithmic search & recommendation and experience.”
“Finally, this is all to say we’ve completed a pivotal step across the aesthetic and technical putting go90 in a position for faster future development and deployment,” Canter said.