July 28, 2008

Verizon Launches FiOS TV in NYC with 100HD Channels

America's biggest city now has the biggest high-definition (HD) TV lineup as Verizon today begins selling FiOS
TV service to customers in New York City. As FiOS TV is launched here, the service will offer 100 HD channels, giving customers more HD than Time Warner or Cablevision.

The new channel lineup will also be offered to existing FiOS TV markets in the New York metropolitan area, including parts of Long Island, the suburbs just north of the city, and northern New Jersey.

Verizon is initially offering FiOS TV to parts of each of the five New York City boroughs. For residents in parts of the first 108 launch neighborhoods, FiOS TV means an unparalleled viewing experience that comes with unmatched, red-carpet customer service. With this initial launch, some 300,000 households will be able to order and enjoy FiOS TV service and Verizon's FiOS triple-play bundle of FiOS TV, FiOS Internet and wired, reliable telephone service. By the end of 2008, the company expects to have half-a-million homes open for sale in New York City.

FiOS TV is delivered over the nation's most advanced fiber-optic network straight to customers' homes and businesses, providing stunning picture and sound quality, more HD and video-on-demand (VOD) choices, a broad spectrum of content diversity, and interactive features that create the ultimate home entertainment experience.

"There's HD on FiOS and then there's everything else," said Shawn Strickland, vice president of video solutions for Verizon. "The immense capacity of our advanced network means FiOS TV customers receive HD signals just as Verizon receives them, without the additional compression that some cable companies perform. This means stunning picture-and-sound quality that's noticeably better, delivered on the network that's made for HD."

With 100 HD channels and 400 HD VOD titles offered each month, FiOS TV customers in the New York metro area now have more than 500 HD choices available at any time. The company plans to increase its monthly HD VOD
titles to more than 1,000 by year-end. In addition, Verizon will continue expanding its HD channel lineup and by year-end will offer all available major HD programming.

Verizon also soon will offer New York metro area customers 14 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.

This content comes from WorldTV, 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 WorldTV
international television channels include MBT (Arabic), RTPI (Portuguese) and RTR Planeta (Russian). In addition to the WorldTV content, Verizon will also offer Filipino channel GMA Pinoy TV.


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