Business

Verizon leaves the dishes for AT&T, but it’s ready to battle Netflix

Satellite TV? Verizon doesn’t need it.

Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam on Tuesday crushed speculation that his telecom giant had any plans of hooking up with Dish Network.

Speculation of such a corporate marriage gained traction this week after Verizon rival AT&T reached an agreement with DirecTV to buy the satellite TV company for $48.5 billion.

“I can tell you now, that is someone’s fantasy,” McAdam said. “There were not, and there are not, discussions going with Dish.”

Left unsaid is what the CEO is planning to spark growth.

Verizon, sources said, is on its way to creating its own Netflix-like video service that could launch in the next 12 months.

The McAdam-led company has signed deals with several major programmers to create a new product that could be offered nationwide — outside its footprint — via broadband and wireless systems, sources tell The Post.

Verizon won’t launch the over-the-top service until it is certain its network can handle the traffic and deliver a high quality product to consumers, one source said. That could take some time.

McAdam, speaking at the JPMorgan Global Technology, Media and Telecom conference, hinted that it wouldn’t be carrying a huge programming package.

“We’re not in the mode of having 80 channels bundled running over On Cue for Verizon, but we are in the mode of having an over-the-top play where customers can pull down what they want,” he said.

Dish Chairman Charlie Ergen last week hinted that hooking up with AT&T or Verizon could be in the cards. AT&T, in making a move on DirecTV, is apparently headed in a separate direction from Verizon.

Shares of Verizon fell 1 percent on Tuesday, to $48.65, while Dish shares fell 3.1 percent, to $57.53.