FiOS

Verizon sees business for business TV

Dan O'Shea — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 22:57:50 -0400

The small business sector often has been an elusive market for telcos as they rolled out different services. So Verizon's decision to offer FiOS TV services to the small business market might have drawn a few snickers. But the telco now says business is picking up for its business TV service. Verizon did not offer actual adoption numbers, but, instead, rolled out a customer case study in a Telephony story. Telephony talked to the owner of a Dallas area oil and lube shop who offers the TV reception as something for his customers to watch while their cars are serviced. He replaced his old satellite service with FiOS because it offers more channels and doesn't go out of service during a storm.

For more:
- read this story at Telephony

Related articles
Verizon added 176,000 FiOS TV customers in the second quarter. Verizon report
Verizon added 263,000 FiOS TV subscribers in the first quarter. Verizon report

Verizon signs deal for exclusive movie premiere

Dan O'Shea — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 17:16:04 -0400

Verizon Communications' FiOS TV customer will have the chance tonight to see an exclusive Disney movie premiere via video-on-demand, three days before it airs on the Disney Channel. The original Disney Channel film is called "The Cheetah Girls One World," and FiOS customers will have access to it at no extra charge. Such advance showings or exclusive premieres are one way telco TV service providers can start to gain notice among customers as purveyors of value-added content.

The idea is not completely new, as satellite TV companies have done it in the past. But telcos have been criticized before for not working closely enough with Hollywood and the rest of the content industry, to establish telcos as valuable content partners. If telcos are willing to pay the price for such deals, it can help them promote their nascent services and gain some friends in the content world.

For more:
- see this story at MediaPost Publications

Related articles:
Telco TV players discussed the need for close content ties at NAB this spring. Telco TV report
Broadcasters seemed uncertain of their IPTV role at NAB 2007. Telco TV report

Verizon adds 176,000 FiOS TV subs, launches in NYC

Dan O'Shea — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 19:43:29 -0400

As part of its second quarter earnings report, Verizon Communications said it added 176,000 FiOS TV subscribers. That figure is not as impressive as Verizon's first quarter TV customer additions of 263,000. Verizon did not seem surprised by the drop-off, alluding to a free HDTV promotion that had run its course. Analysts may have been a bit more surprised, according to a story at Multichannel News. Verizon now has a total TV tally of more than 1.4 million subscribers.

The telco also chose Monday to officially launch FiOS TV in New York City, saying the service initially is in reach of about 340,000 Big Apple households. Verizon, which received regulatory appoval for the launch earlier this month, said it plans to pass 500,000 households by the end of the year, and cover all of New York City within six years.

For more:
- see this coverage of Verizon's subs at Multichannel News
- read more about the NYC launch in this Associated Press story

Related articles:
Verizon recently received state regulatory approval for the NYC launch. Verizon report
Verizon added 263,000 FiOS TV subscribers in the first quarter. Verizon report

Verizon testing online video over TV

Dan O'Shea — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 23:24:12 -0400

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 at Zatz Not Funny

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

Verizon continues analog phase-out

Dan O'Shea — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 10:50:06 -0400

Verizon Communications earlier this year began the process of phasing out analog broadcast in some of its East Coast markets. On July 21, Maryland and Northern Virginia will be added to the program, which already has seen Verizon stop using analog signals for its FiOS TV services in New Jersey, Massachusetts and New York.

The telco informed the Federal Communications Commission last year that it would eliminate analog channel delivery in advance of the agency's all-digital mandate set to take effect in February 2009. The move allowed the telco to qualify for a waiver on deploying set-top boxes with embedded security functions.

For more:
- see this post at Multichannel News

Related articles:
The digital TV transition may help cable TV providers competitively. Digital TV report
Verizon phased out analog transmission in New York in April. Verizon report

Verizon posts 263K TV customer boost

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 06:59:50 -0400

Verizon Communications this week reported a 9.8% increase in profit for the first quarter of 2008. Verizon said net income totaled $1.64 billion, with revenue rising about 5.5%. Much of the growth came from Verizon Wireless, but Verizon FiOS TV service continue to be secondary source of strength. The telco reported that FiOS TV subscribers increased by 263,000 FiOS TV customers during the quarter, giving a total of about 1.2 million TV customers.

AT&T last week reported it had gained about 148,000 U-verse TV customers, so the two largest telcos won over more than 400,000 TV customers in the first three months of this year. That can't be good news for a cable TV industry that has been knocked around competitively by AT&T and Verizon since last year.

For more:
- see this story at The Wall Street Journal
- and this blog post at ZDNet.com

Related articles:
AT&T last week reported 148,000 new IPTV customers. AT&T report
Verizon hits 1 million FiOS subscriber mark Verizon report

Verizon: High-tech households driving GPON

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 06:59:10 -0400

Michael Daigle, vice president of network planning at Verizon Communications, sees the multi-user, multi-device home as the major driver for the telco's ongoing deployment of gigabit passive optical networking technology. Verizon now has GPON in about 40 of its 600 central offices, and while the 2.4 Gbps bandwidth is not needed everywhere, the pattern for demand has a lot to do with those larger, high-tech-heavy households, Daigle told Light Reading.

Verizon likely will be increasing its GPON footprint throughout this year as central offices currently supported by broadband PON get converted to GPON. It is not clear how many actual FiOS customers are now served by GPON. Beyond GPON, Verizon is eyeing the possible evolution to WDM-PON, though that could be at least two years away, and Verizon official say the technology and its advantages need to mature further before a commitment is made.

For more:
- see this report at Light Reading

Related articles:
- GPON drove Ericsson's acquisition of Entrisphere late last year. GPON report
- Tellabs GPON move leads to more questions Tellabs report

FiOS runs out of televisions

Tom Burton — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 07:59:20 -0400

Verizon's high-profile campaign to sign up FiOS subs by offering a free 19-inch Sharp HD television has become an embarrassment after Verizon had to admit the televisions would take up to 15 weeks to arrive. The nearly four-month delay prompted Verizon to write to FiOS subscribers offering them an alternative Magnates TV or a $200 Best Buy gift card. It has also withdrawn the offer.

Verizon said the delay was because Sharp has not been able to meet the demand. Verizon added 226,000 new IPTV subscribers in the final quarter in 2007 and expected to maintain that rate into 2008. Verizon also faced a delay in HDTV set-top boxes, which it said was also a supply problem with its vendor Motorola. The shortage came after a spike in orders during the holiday season saw subscriber numbers soar over a million, making the IPTV service the 10th biggest provider of television in the country.

For more:
- Still waiting for that TV Article

Related articles:
Verizon FiOS hits a million subs Article
Verizon promised FiOS would be profitable by 2010 Release

TIA report ignores IPTV

Tom Burton — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 06:59:50 -0500

Go to the index of the Telecom Industry Association's latest 378-page market report and you will be surprised to see there is no reference to IPTV under "I" in the index. There are scattered references under country specific titles, but while VoIP gets an entire section of attention, the report is virtually silent about the industry's biggest new capital play. There are some scant references to European IPTV numbers but, by my observation, there was not a number mentioned in the U.S. market section.

Nor any detailed analysis of the video and rich media market so obviously driving much of the industry economics. Indeed the TIA and its lead research group, Wilkofsky Gruen, seem strangely stuck in yesterday's industry structure. With Verizon now having a million FiOS customers and AT&T aggressively chasing a similar number through its U-verse business, the industry clearly believes its future is tied to being able to offer video and other rich media services. Toss in the 160 million global households expected to hook up the TV to the Internet over the next four years, the boom in on-line gaming, the whole P2P networking phenomena, the user-generated-video explosion and the imminent shift to video on demand--and maybe we might see a new chapter in the 2009 TIA market report.

For more:
- TIA forecast

Related articles:
Apple seeks control of the video home Article
Lounge room wars Article

Will FiOS be the first victim of a recession?

Tom Burton — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 06:59:50 -0500

Verizon's aggressive FiOS roll out could definitely be one of the items COO and President Denny Strigl has to review if his sunny optimism about 2008 proves mis-founded. Verizon was celebrating their one millionth FiOS TV customer yesterday and have plans to roll past another 3 million homes this year. But the reality is it is the broadband service that is really driving FiOS take up, rather than the need to replicate either a cable or satellite pay-TV service. While there are a million fiber TV homes, there are 1.5 fiber Internet homes

Strigl suggested just this at the Q3 conference call last year--that the demand for high speed Internet is what is really driving fiber take up. This was also obvious from the numbers yesterday with DSL growth virtually stalled and Strigl admitting Verizon was seeing a migration from DSL to fiber and wireless broadband. Given the entry prices for fiber Internet are lower than standard DSL pricing, it is going to save cap-ex and lift revenue if Strigl simply decides to slow the fiber deployment. This may upset the New York types agitating for Verizon to finally put them on the roll-out plan, but will settle investors who have now been given a very bullish guidance for 2008.

For More:
- Transcript of Verizon's conference call yesterday
- Verizon celebrates one million FiOS TV customers Release

Related articles:
See our special section with all the coverage of Verizon's Q4 earnings
Spotlight: Verizon FiOS turns two Report
Verizon FiOS TV tops 200K subscribers Report