Verizon testing online video over TV

The IPTV World Forum North America event last week in Chicago was a cozy little affair (maybe too cozy and little for some, but presentations were well-attended both days). Maybe potential new customers and partners were hard to come by, but one of the things FierceIPTV enjoyed about this conference was the number of service provider presentations.

One of those presentations was from Joseph Ambeault, director of consumer prodcut development, video services at Verizon. He talked a lot about Verizon's approach to using customer beta test groups to evaluate IPTV applications and concepts. One of the juicier details Ambeault mentioned was that Verizon is now beta testing online video delivery over TVs. He said "several hundred customer homes" are involved in the test, and that Verizon spent very little time instructing them, but is now monitoring where they are going and how often to access online video content.

Verizon has discussed Web video-to-FiOS TV ambitions before, but it sounds like things are really moving along. Dave Zatz of Zatz Not Funny has more details about who Verizon is working with and how they are doing it. Stay tuned.

For more:
- read this post [1] at Zatz Not Funny

Related articles:
The TV-Web video marriage is also something TiVo and Amazon are working toward. TV-Web video report [2]
Over-the-top video could have an impact on TV advertising. OTT video report [3]