Verizon Teams With Starz On Broadband Service; Live From New York, It's FiOS
This story was written by David Kaplan.
Verizon (NYSE: VZ) been working on two deals related to its cable business. The telco has a partnership with Starz Entertainment to set up a subscription broadband programming channel. Reuters says that the service is similar to a broadband deal Verizon has with Vongo; but the Starz Play service is $5.99 per month compared to Vongo, which lets subscribers rent an unlimited amount of movies for $9.99 a month. Vongo has a library of roughly 1,000 movies, while Starz isn't saying how many rentals it will provide.
Separately, Multichannel News reports that Verizon is "ready, committed and eager" to begin rolling out its FiOS cable TV service throughout New York City. The announcement follows an agreement between Verizon and the city's Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications. FiOS has one more hurdle before it can begin challenging Cablevision (NYSE: CVC), Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) and other providers, though. The city's Franchise and Concession Review Committee is set to vote on whether to approve the deployment of FiOS on May 27.
By David Kaplan