PolicyBlog

Our colleague Bill Kula has a quick update on what’s happening with Verizon’s efforts to have the FCC act on our (and your) complaints.  Bill says of MSG’s owners: “Cablevision is unlawfully withholding HD sports programming, and the record in that proceeding is complete. We filed our complaint over eight months ago, and there’s nothing left for the FCC to do but act on it." The whole post can be found... Read More

Holman Jenkins has an interesting piece in the Wall Street Journal about competition in the video market.  What he says in essence is that “creative destructionism” (A term coined by economist Joseph Schumpeter in his famous tome Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy, to describe the process of transformation that accompanies radical innovation and its impact on markets) is a reality in today’s video market and few really appreciate it. I tend to believe too that with technology evolution, it is... Read More

As reported in some press accounts today, we can confirm that Verizon will carry the new Epix movie channel from MGM, Paramount and Lionsgate films.  Details on my Verizon At Home... Read More

UPDATE 7/10: See bottom of this post for a short video discussion on this topic.=======================================================The New York Times has a fascinating article on how video on the web has changed.  In a nutshell, the article points out that even just a couple of years ago, most videos were very short and often of low quality.  Now, some sites report that they are seeing videos uploaded that exceed 30 minutes in length and sometimes even are movie length according to an... Read More

As readers of this blog know, Cablevision has refused to make the MSG channels that it owns available in HD to Verizon.  That's why we haven’t provided the HD versions of the MSG regional sports programming to our customers in New York and New Jersey.  Now we’re asking the Federal Communications Commission for a ruling – within five months – that could change all that.In something called a Program Access Complaint filed yesterday, we ask the FCC to compel Cablevision to provide this programming... Read More

More FiOS HD?  Yes, it’s for real.  Verizon FiOS TV is getting six new HD channels – and we’re letting readers of this blog know about it first. We’re launching HD channels from Viacom – MTV, VH1, CMT (Country Music Television), Nickelodeon, Spike TV, and Comedy Central.  They’ll be available in all FiOS TV markets by the end of next week.  This is most-watched content and it’ll be even more popular in HD. Depending on the number of local and regional HD channels available in your market,... Read More

When you ask people what sort of information they want at their fingertips, news about the local community almost always comes up at the top of the list.  Verizon FiOS TV is giving subscribers more ways to get the local information, entertainment, weather and sports that matters most. Since we first started offering FiOS TV, customers have been able to quickly check local traffic and weather with Widgets.  We’ve added other Widgets for news, sports and weather.  Click the Widgets button on your... Read More

Competition is great for consumers, but for Comcast, it must be intimidating.  How else to explain the over-the-top propaganda campaign Comcast has mounted against Verizon?  We have demanded that Comcast “cease and desist” from this unfair, untruthful and illegal advertising.  Comcast cares, we keep hearing, but a series of new Comcast ads demonstrates conclusively that Comcast does not care about getting accurate information to consumers. In these ads, Comcast once again tries to convince the... Read More

Although Verizon offers more than 100 HD channels in every FiOS TV market, there are two channels we currently can’t provide in high definition to our customers in downstate New York, western New York and northern New Jersey – the regional sports channels MSG and MSG Plus. As I've stated before, the reason is simple: Cablevision, which owns MSG and MSG Plus, refuses to supply the programming in high definition to us.  Then Cablevision advertises that they have the most high-definition sports... Read More