Verizon FiOS TV is now even better for customers in the Richmond and Virginia Beach areas as the company is launching 21 new channels, including 16 additional high-definition (HD) channels. As a result of this enhancement to the FiOS TV lineup, Verizon is now offering consumers here more HD than Comcast and Cox.
FiOS TV customers in the area now have more than 450 HD choices available at any time, with a total of 45 HD channels and more than 400 HD video-on-demand (VOD) titles offered each month. Verizon will continue expanding its FiOS TV channel lineup this year, with a major focus on HD content. By year-end, Verizon will offer all available major HD programming.
To make the offer even sweeter, Verizon announced that consumers who sign up for FiOS TV between now and Oct. 4 are eligible for a year’s free use of either an HD DVR (digital video recorder) or an HD Home Media DVR. With Verizon’s unique Home Media DVR, customers can use one DVR to record programming that can be watched on up to six other TV sets in the home. This includes viewing up to three separately recorded programs simultaneously on different TV sets, and the ability to pause recorded programming on one set and continue watching it on another. FiOS TV’s Home Media DVR is bundled with Media Manager, a feature that allows customers to access photos and music from their personal computers and play them on their TV.
Verizon is also offering new FiOS TV customers, or existing customers who upgrade to a bundled package, one free month of HBO and Cinemax, which includes over 25 premium channels and access to hundreds of additional titles on VOD. New customers who take advantage of this offer will save between $200 and $260.
“FiOS TV is the only service to consider if you want the ultimate HD experience,” said Mary Ellen Payne, vice president of sales and marketing for Verizon’s Potomac region. “With our increased number of HD channels, along with HD video-on-demand programming and our current HD DVR and premium movie promotion, we’re blowing cable away.”
Verizon Leads the Way With 16 New HD Channels, and More to Come
“There’s HD on FiOS, and then there’s everything else,” said Payne. “The addition of new HD and sports channels, along with new multicultural content and more, is part of our commitment to lead the industry in the scope and quality of our programming.”
FiOS TV customers in the Richmond and Virginia Beach markets will now have a total of 45 HD channels and will get to see some of their favorite channels in HD, including Animal Planet, TLC, Science Channel and Smithsonian Channel. Other new HD programming that FiOS TV customers in the region will receive includes CNN, Lifetime, Bravo, TBS, Cinemax, HBO, History Channel, Weather Channel and SCI FI.
In addition, later this year, those customers who subscribe to FiOS TV’s Movie Package - which already includes more than 40 channels from Showtime, Starz, The Movie Channel, Encore, Sundance Channel and IFC, as well as access to hundreds of free movies on VOD - will have access to five new HD channels from Starz and Showtime. The new channels are: Starz Edge, Starz Comedy, Starz Kids and Family, Showtime West and Showtime 2.
Big Ten Network and More Sports Content
For sports fans in the Richmond and Virginia Beach areas, Verizon has launched three new HD sports channels. Verizon has always placed a high priority on major sports programming and offering as much as possible in HD.
The company has now added top college basketball and football action with the Big Ten Network, which is available in both standard- and high-definition formats on FiOS TV. In addition, Verizon has launched two other new HD sports channels - Versus/Golf Channel, which features NHL games and PGA Tour events, as well as original sports-related programming; and the Outdoor Channel 2, which provides high-definition programming that promotes traditional outdoor activities like fishing, hunting and shooting sports.
Verizon also is now offering Setanta Sports, a premium channel dedicated to bringing European and International soccer and rugby to U.S.-based fans. Currently, no other cable provider offers Setanta.
New Multicultural Content for Diverse Audiences
Verizon has been focused on bringing a range of diverse, multicultural content to its FiOS TV customers. Verizon will soon offer customers in the Richmond and Virginia Beach markets 15 new multicultural channels, including leading channels for Arabic, Portuguese and Russian audiences, among others. These new channels continue to make FiOS TV an outlet for emerging and independent networks to showcase their diverse programming.
Much of the multicultural content comes from World TV, a division of content management and delivery company GlobeCast, which previously signed a distribution deal with Verizon for top-tier international channels. The new GlobeCast World TV international television channels include MBT (Arabic), RTPI (Portuguese) and RTR Planeta (Russian). In addition to the World TV content, Verizon will offer Filipino channel GMA Pinoy TV.
Customers in the Richmond and Virginia Beach markets join those in Indiana, Oregon, New York, northern New Jersey and southwestern Pennsylvania who are receiving new content on the FiOS TV channel lineup. During the next few months, Verizon will roll out this new content and more, region by region, in other areas where FiOS TV is available.
Verizon’s FiOS TV service offers a broad collection of all-digital programming, with more than 400 total channels and 11,000 video-on-demand titles, 70 percent of which are free. The VOD library also includes an increasing number of HD titles, and Verizon plans to have 1,000 HD VOD titles per month by the end of the year. FiOS TV is currently available to more than 7 million homes in 13 states. For more information on FiOS TV, visit www.verizon.com/fiostv.
Source - Press Release
