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July 17, 2007
This weekly e-mail newsletter covers everything related to Telco-IP Television.
FiOS TV Gets Statewide Franchise in Sunshine State
The Florida Department of State approved Verizon Communications’ application for a state-issued cable franchise, opening the way for the telco to offer FiOS TV service in the Tampa, Fla., area.
The telco filed a franchise application with the state July 2 to be able to offer FiOS TV service to 77,000 more households in the cities of Tarpon Springs and Sarasota, as well as portions of Pinellas County. Verizon now has franchises for 19 communities in Florida.
In the Tampa area, Verizon will compete with Bright House Networks in Tarpon Springs, with Comcast in Sarasota and with Bright House and Knology in parts of Pinellas County.
Verizon’s application was made under the state’s franchise-reform law allowing new competitors to apply for statewide franchising. The law includes a provision allowing providers to expand video service into other calling areas by filing an amendment within five days of providing initial service in the area.
"In just nine days, we were able to gain the legal status to open up competition and choice to 77,000 households -- a process that would have taken one year or more otherwise,” Verizon Southeast region president Alan Ciamporcero said in a prepared statement. "We are both encouraged and excited by today's decision and look forward to expanding our fiber services to more customers in even more of our region in the months and years ahead."
In other FiOS TV news, Verizon was awarded franchises last week in Fredericksburg, Va., where it will take on Comcast; Scarsdale, N.Y., also a Comcast market; Melrose, Mass., also served by Comcast, as well as overbuilder RCN; and Yonkers, N.Y., where it will compete with Cablevision Systems.
Verizon also announced the launch of FiOS TV in Bedford, Mass., yet another Comcast market.
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Sun VOD Servers to Shine on AT&T U-Verse TV
AT&T will use Sun Microsystems’ recently launched video-on-demand servers in new deployments of its IP-video-hub offices.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. AT&T will use Sun Fire X4600 servers to deliver video to U-verse TV customers, as well as Sun StorageTek storage arrays to host the service’s VOD library.
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Verizon Taps CTO from Wireless Side
Verizon Communications moved Dick Lynch, chief technology officer of Verizon Wireless, into a newly created CTO slot overseeing all of the telco’s networks.
Lynch, who had been Verizon Wireless’ CTO since that company was founded in 2000, will report to Verizon president and chief operating officer Denny Strigl. Verizon Wireless is a joint venture of Verizon and Vodafone.
Verizon Wireless will appoint a replacement for Lynch “at a later date,” the company said.
In his new role, Lynch will be responsible for managing technology strategy and planning for Verizon's wired and wireless networks. CTOs in each business group will continue to report to their respective group presidents.
Lynch "has been the chief architect of Verizon Wireless' network leadership, and we are confident that he will bring that same focus to all of Verizon's networks as we continue to seize opportunities to strengthen our business," Strigl said in a prepared statement. Strigl also came over from Verizon Wireless, appointed as the telco’s president and COO last December in a move that Verizon said would create a “single point of accountability” for all business units.
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FiOS TV Subs Get First Crack at High School Musical 2
Disney Channel will give Cablevision Systems and Verizon Communications FiOS TV subscribers a week-long sneak preview of the network’s highly anticipated High School Musical 2 movie beginning Aug. 10.
The film -- a sequel to the 2006 Disney movie, which has been viewed by more than 160 million viewers worldwide -- will be available on the Cablevision- and Verizon-distributed Disney On Demand service prior to the movie's premiere on Disney Channel Aug. 17.
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Sky Angel to Spread IPTV Wings via NeuLion
Sky Angel will use NeuLion’s IPTV platform to distribute multiple channels of Christian-centered and family-friendly programming.
Sky Angel chose NeuLion’s IPTV service for the quality of the experience and broadest market reach and because NeuLion’s proven, pre-existing IPTV networks are in production with sizable consumer bases.
Sky Angel plans to transition its subscriber base in the United States to IPTV over the next year. It currently delivers more than 30 television and radio channels to customers across the contiguous United States using direct-broadcast satellite and reaches consumers in homes, churches, prisons, shelters, hospitals and nursing homes.
“We believe the Sky Angel service, using the NeuLion platform, will be more economical than our current satellite system and will provide our viewers more options,” Sky Angel CEO Rob Johnson said in a prepared statement.
IPTV provides viewers value-added services and conveniences such as the ability to set up their own equipment to retrieve programs that have already aired, much like a digital-video recorder, and to use video-on-demand. NeuLion’s multiplatform service allows Sky Angel to reach viewers anywhere at any time, whether through the television, Web or mobile device.
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• Packet Vision joined Juniper Networks' J-Partner Solutions Alliance Program to offer its targeted, addressable and interactive advertising solutions as part of a bundle of services geared to the IPTV industry.
• KyLinTV will team up with Phoenix TVM to air the 2007 Miss Chinese Cosmos Pageant of the Americas on Phoenix North America Channel.
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