Verizon Launching Its IPTV Service in NYC Next Week; Web Video Delivery Tests
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Monday, July 28, 2008; 1:07 AM
Verizon ( NYSE: VZ) is finally ready to launch its IPTV service in one of the biggest TV market in the country: New York City. It will launch its Fios TV service Monday, following all kinds of clearances from the City. It will be a high-profile press event at the Grand Central Station, and will be webcast as well. It has already been marketing the Fios high-speed Internet service in the City for the past two years...this launch means it will be able to offer its much-vaunted triple play: telephony, TV, and broadband services, competing with the monopoly of Time Warner ( NYSE: TWX) Cable.
Ivan Seidenberg, CEO of Verizon, spoke earlier this week at the Fortune conference, where he seemed pleased with Fios TV roll out in various parts of the country. "Where we have been in the markets, where we have been selling 24 months or more, we have said we have 30 percent share." Fios TV had about 1.2 million customers country-wide by the end of Q1 this year.
Meanwhile, in related news, Fios TV is also working on online video delivery component: is currently beta testing web video on their set-top boxes and their initial marketing partners include Veoh, Blip.tv, Break.com, and YouTube, reports Dave Zatz. This is similar to Tivo, though David notes that it is much more elegant than that: its allows you to add RSS subscriptions directly to Media Manager via web browser. These features will be offered as part of Verizon's top tier DVR package, which also includes PC photo sharing and multi-room DVR playback.
Updated: NYT reports on the politics behind Verizon's move into NYC. Also, on packages: Verizon will offer customers a promotional fee of $94.99 for unlimited local and long-distance phone service, an Internet connection of 20 megabits per second and a television package that includes 100 high-definition channels, nearly double what rivals are offering. Customers must sign a one-year contract.
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