Verizon Wireless is tackling over-the-top video providers with its own mobile video portal app, dubbed viewdini.

Customers can use the app to view "thousands" of movies and television shows from Comcast Xfinity, Hulu Plus, mSpot and Netflix. Content from Verizon's own FiOS service will be added soon, the operator said. 

"We're giving our customers a simple and intuitive way to find shows, movies and other videos from the sources they have relationships with and discover new sources of video as well," Verizon Wireless President and CEO Dan Mead said in a statement.

Some of the content will be free, but some must be paid for through a subscription, rental or purchase.  

The service is expected to launch later this month and initially will be available only to customers with LTE-capable Android smartphones, though support for other platforms is in the works. The app will be available through Google Play and is free to Verizon customers. 

Viewdini was unveiled yesterday at the National Cable & Telecommunications Association’s conference in Boston, the same event where a group of cable operators announced plans to share access to each other's Wi-Fi networks. 

Viewdini could help Verizon glean profits from mobile video services, currently dominated by third -party providers like YouTube that do not contribute much to operators' top line beyond additional data revenue.  

The service reflects a broader effort within the industry to address free over-the-top (OTT) services that threaten carriers' business models, such as Skype VoIP calling and no-charge messaging apps. Ovum released estimates early last month that over-the-top social messaging apps would cost operators $23 billion in mobile messaging revenue this year.

Brian Higgins, Verizon's LTE development director, said in an April interview with Wireless Week that the solution was not to block the apps, but come up with innovative products customers are willing to pay for. 

“There are certainly plenty of offerings that are coming in over the top that may compete directly with things that we're building internally and we think that's fine,” Higgins said. 

The competition pushes Verizon to "try to build a superior service offering," he said. "Our hope is the best offering wins with consumers.”