Verizon FiOS enters city with mixed bag for sports fans
I can't believe I'm diving into this muck voluntarily - especially with Cablevision buying Newsday any minute now - but duty calls:
Verizon FiOS' TV service will begin to become available in parts of New York City starting today, putting the company in competition mostly with Time Warner, the dominant cable carrier in Big Town.
So what are the implications for sports fans?
The basics: Verizon offers the NFL Network, which Time Warner (and Cablevision) do not. (It also has Setanta Sports, which is big for fans of soccer and rugby and such.)
But unlike Time Warner, Verizon does not have the premium, out-of-market services for the three major sports other than football - Extra Innings, League Pass and Center Ice. (No one other than DirecTV has the NFL's Sunday Ticket.)
Verizon offers a bunch of stuff in HD, but not Cablevision's MSG or MSG Plus. Verizon has complained about not having access to those channels in HD.
(Cablevision also keeps adding HD channels, and does not charge for an HD box!)
That's all. If I got anything wrong here, Cablevision or Time Warner p.r. will let me know, I'm sure.
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Comments (10)
We're in New Jersey and got FIOS in January...the salesman at the time insisted that by the start of the baseball season we would have Extra Innings as did the Verizon FIOS blog...well the season is 2/3 over and we still don't have it (and the blog says things like it's a complex negotiation and don't count on getting it the day after the ink dries)...
In addition, on a non sports level, for reasons I don't understand, Verizon FIOS does not carry MSNBC, a very significant omission. No word from them on just when I can expect to get it.
Don't get it till they fix these problems. I switched back to comcast.
I got Verizon on Long Island three weeks ago,. What channel is Setanta on? I would love to get it and have considered getting the broadband version. I didn't realize it doesn't have MSNBC but that is unimportant. It does have ESPNU but not the hockey network.
They did change the channels around last week. Not sure why. One of the installers said they will add 1000 channels by next year. I haven't gotten the first bill yet. I hope Cablevision does not terminate you or Ken Davidoff because of losing revenue from me. Wally Mathews wouldn't be missed.
One of the premiere packages has things like Tennis channel, outdoor, sportsman, MAV tv plus some of the golf, horse racing, FOX college sports east, central and west that are on cablevision
Jim: I believe Setanta is coming to LI this week, or very soon.
Joel: Cablevision has some sort of exclusive deal with MSNBC that keeps it off Verizon. I have heard from others that Verizon more or less promised Extra Innings this season but has not yet delivered.
Fios also has versus on its basic tier, so you can watch all the hockey games, unlike Cablevision.
Anyone with digital service on Cablevision, which is more than 80 percent of their customers, gets Versus.
Before hockey season starts will you go to Gluaber's house and show him which channel Versus is on? Please?? Before he starts ranting on his blog about missing important games???
Okay Cablevision will not I repeat will not have another carrier over lapping their territory have MSNBC. That is the contract they negotiated with MSNBC except for DirecTV . Verizon is negotiating to try to get it still good luck Verizon.
Next MLB extra innings is owned by Mr. Cablevision cousin they will not let Verizon get that either. Good luck Verizon.
Next Mr. Best mentioned no HD MSG & MSG Plus on Verizon. That will never happen so Verizon does not need luck there.
You get the picture also one other thing Mr. Best mentioned no charge for HD. Wrong you pay extra when you go to IO at Cablevision. The charge is there.
I switched to Verizon in March for a number of reason. The multi-room dvr is great. But I was very pleasantly surprised while I was flipping around the new channels to find The Big Ten Network. As a Penn State Alum, this is HUGE. It is not on Cablevision and when Cablevision sent one of it people door to door to get me back, he had never even heard of The Big Ten Network. He also said the are "negotiating" for the NFL network.
Methinks one of the big differences between the cable tv franchises
[Yes, Verizon's is still run on a cable ... mostly "glass" encased in plastic vs. copper encased in plastic] is that Ma Bell requires a written contract, much like the one you may have with Verizon Wireless or another cell phone carrier.Hard to get out of without penalty.
Hey - the more competition the better -- though through vertical integration i.e. ownership of certain channels, restrictive programming contracts, or plain old vanilla issues such as system capacity or financial deals, no one subscriber to any one cable or satellite system is going to get everything that they want.
Will a Verizon or DirecTV subscriber get News 12 or NY-1? Will cable subs of all flavors get the NFL package?
Stay tuned ... and due to Neil's soon-to-be paystub signee, you'll read more and more about all of this in due time.
Any updates on MSG HD and MSG + HD on FIOS TV ?
Its been a month since a last update (July 25).