Verizon Ads Bash Cable Rivals in Northern Jersey
Telco Talks Up Its FiOS Service In Latest Campaign
By Linda Haugsted -- Multichannel News, August 13, 2008
Verizon is advertising that northern New Jersey consumers should “pull the plug on their disco-era cable TV company” and subscribe to the telco's FiOS service, which now has 100 channel selections in high-definition.
The campaign takes direct swipes at Comcast Corp. and Cablevision Systems, the major incumbents in the state. The HD service will be available to the southern part of the state “in the near future,” according to the company.
HD selections include Animal Planet, TLC, FX, USA, Bravo, TBS, History Channel, Weather Channel, Science Channel, Sci Fi and Smithsonian Channel. Verizon has added CNN, CNBC, Fox Business Network and Fox News Channel, QVC, Travel Channel, Planet Green, Disney Channel and Toon Disney. Premium networks include 11 Cinemax channels, 13 HBO selections and 13 channels of Starz and Showtime, the latter two marketed together as a movie package.
Sports channels include the Big Ten Network, Versus/Golf Channel, Outdoor Channel 2 and the World Fishing Network.
Shawn Strickland, vice president of video solutions for Verizon, issued a statement asserting that picture quality is also better than cable competitors because Verizon does not perform signal compression “that some cable companies perform.”
