Verizon (News - Alert) Communications is buying the assets of Intel Media, which supports cloud-based TV products and services. Verizon says the  transaction will accelerate the availability of next-generation video services, both integrated with Verizon FiOS (News - Alert) fiber-optic networks and delivered "over the top" to any device.

Verizon will purchase intellectual property rights and other assets that enable Intel (News - Alert)'s OnCue platform. Verizon expects to retain “substantially all of the approximately 350-person Intel unit, which will continue to be based in Santa Clara and be led by its current management team.”

Verizon expects to integrate IP-based TV services with FiOS video to further differentiate FiOS from traditional cable TV offerings, in part by creating new search and discovery mechanisms, adding interactivity and cross-screen ease of use.

The transaction is expected to close early in the first quarter of 2014, and follows other investments Verizon recently has made in mobile TV. In December of 2013, Verizon acquired EdgeCast, a content delivery network.

Late in 2013, Verizon also announced the acquisition of upLynk's technology for improving the uploading and encoding of video for live, linear and video-on-demand content.

"The OnCue platform and team will help Verizon bring next-generation video services to audiences who increasingly expect to view content when, where and how they want it,” said Lowell McAdam (News - Alert), Verizon chairman and CEO.

All those moves show Verizon’s strategic interest in supporting on demand, Internet-delivered video content, to any device, at any location.

At a very practical level, such capabilities would allow Verizon to immediately address nearly 100 percent of the U.S. population, rather than just those potential customers who live in areas where Verizon owns fixed network assets. More than anything else, that footprint expansion would allow Verizon to compete for customers and revenue everywhere.

And that would open up a chance to significantly increase Verizon’s ability to gain market share in the video entertainment business. Right now, Verizon only can address a fragment of U.S. home, but Verizon Wireless (News - Alert) reaches most people.

If the mobile network can deliver video content, Verizon can compete nationwide for customers, not only in the northeastern United States and some parts of California, Texas, Florida and some other locations.