Today, Verizon announced its first rate hike, increasing the average monthly bill for video services by about 5%. The rate hikes will only affect new customers, plus existing customers that make changes to their account after January 14, 2007. The changes will not affect existing customers so long as they do not make changes to their account.
On Thursday, November 16, Verizon announced a multi-year agreement with Cablevision’s Rainbow Media to distribute their sports and entertainment programming to FiOS subscribers.
The agreement covers AMC, IFC, WE tv, fuse, along with its on-demand channels, Mag Rack and Sportskool. It also covers sports networks, such as MSG, FSN New York, FSN New England, and FSN New England HD. The new channels will be added in December.
Over the course of the next week, Verizon will be adding ESPN Gameplan to its FiOS TV systems. ESPN Gameplan features over 250 college football games from the BIG12, BIG TEN, BIG EAST, SEC, ACC, PAC-10, WAC, MAC, and BELT divisions.
Today, Verizon Communications reached an agreement with GlobeCast World TV to supply its FiOS TV service with 37 new international channels in 18 languages from Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. The channels will be available on a subscription basis, with select programming available via video-on-demand.
One of my executive contacts at Verizon informed me today that 2-3 new high-definition channels are coming to the FiOS TV service by the end of November.
While they would not confirm the names of the channels, I was told that high-definition versions of regional sports networks are coming to markets that don’t yet have them. That’s good news for fans of YES-HD, MSG-HD, and CSN-HD.
This week, Verizon celebrates the one-year anniversary of its FiOS fiber-optic television service. As part of the announcement, FiOS described some of its plans for year two of the television service.
In November 2004, subscriber Peter Cohen filed a lawsuit against DirecTV for misrepresenting its high-definition service. DirecTV claimed to offer high-definition, when in fact it was offering something less. DirecTV sought to keep the case out of the public’s eye by attempting to compel arbitration in the case. This week, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge ruled against DirecTV, declaring that DirecTV would have to answer questions about its practice of degrading HDTV signals in court.
This week, Verizon expanded its FiOS TV service to an additional eight cities in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Effective immediately, most Verizon customers in Allen, Corinth, Denton, Double Oak, Hebron, Lucas, Parker, and St. Paul can order Verizon TV service. Verizon intends to offer FiOS service to more than one million Texans by the year’s end.
The September 14 edition of the Wall Street Journal details some of the struggles Verizon had had in working with Microsoft to expand the software and features of its set-top boxes and digital video recorders. The article also provides some hints on what’s to come for Verizon FiOS service in the next six months.
Tivo finally released its next-generation Series3 HDTV DVR. This is Tivo’s first product designed for digital cable and high-definition television. It replaces the cable box.
The Tivo Series3 fully supports Verizon FiOS TV service.
The 18-month dispute between Verizon and Montgomery County over the terms of a FiOS TV franchise is finally coming to an end. Verizon and county officials have reached agreement on a 15-year cable franchise. The agreement now awaits approval by the County Council.
This past week, Verizon released updated firmware for the Actiontec router used with its FiOS Internet and TV service. The new provider greatly improves the router’s user interface. It also addresses known issues with networking over coax (MoCA), thereby improving the reliability and responsiveness of video-on-demand, pay-per-view, and multi-room DVR functionality.
Verizon FiOS currently has a major software update in the works for its Motorola QIP6412 HDTV DVRs. Although little is known about the software, it is said to offer significant improvements in both usability and functionality.
The software update is slated for trial in one or two markets in November/December, with the rest to follow in 1Q 2007.
Several readers have inquired as to the “real cost” of Verizon FiOS service. Often, cable providers will advertise $30-$40 Internet and TV service, but when they finish adding up all the add-ons, extras, rentals, and taxes, your actual bill can run $150 or even $200.
Is FiOS any different? It sure is.
Today, Verizon FiOS introduced their multi-room DVR service. This software update enables the current Motorola QIP6416 HDTV DVR to share and stream television recordings to standard set-top boxes anywhere in your home. The multiroom DVR service also allows you listen to music and view pictures stored on your computer. No additional cabling is required to take advantage of this service — it uses your existing cable.
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