When Verizon launches its 5G fixed wireless, in-home broadband service in four cities later this year it will start offering those customers the option of a free subscription to YouTube TV or a free Apple TV 4K device with their internet package.

Customers of its 5G residential broadband service, located in the launch cities of Houston, Indianapolis, Los Angeles and Sacramento, will also gain access to live NFL and NBA games, along with news programs through Verizon’s Oath unit, according to Bloomberg.    

How long the period of free YouTube TV service lasts was not disclosed, but the partnership aligns with the strategy executives have been echoing this year – that Verizon is focused on its network and will look to distribution deals rather than owning original content like rival AT&T.

Speaking at a conference back in February, Verizon CFO Matt Ellis said the company would focus investment on digital distribution rights. He pointed to the company’s five-year mobile streaming deal signed with the NFL as an example of content that brings consumers into their platforms.

Ellis said Verizon felt the right move was to act as a distributor of content instead of an underlying owner.  

More recently, on the company’s second-quarter earnings call, outgoing CEO Lowell McAdam reiterated that sentiment, advocating a partnership approach.

“We’re not going to be owning content so we’re not going to be competing with other content providers,” McAdam said. “We’re going to be their best partner from a distribution perspective and I think that makes great sense for the company going forward.”  

Verizon’s own previous video efforts were not a great success, specifically its failed go90 video app. Less than three years after launch, Verizon announced it would shutter the platform, which never managed to gain traction with audiences. The company also nixed plans to launch a live streaming TV service that would have competed with the likes of DirecTV Now, Sling, and Hulu with live TV.