FiOS TV: A Few More Details

Joseph Laszlo | June 30, 2005, 05:38 PM

I was talking with a client earlier this week about what FiOS TV, and by extension other video/tv-over-IP efforts, were likely to look like.

The most real answer right now, for the US, is "who the heck knows?" But of course that's not very useful. So you start building a framework of scenarios and try to reason out what's the most likely one, and go from there. For right now, it's safe to say that a TV-over-IP offering has to be great TV, first and foremost, or it won't take off (that is, you couldn't just offer movies on demand and expect to win people over from cable).

Beyond that, telcos have a choice of going for the tech-savvy end of the market, and really pushing the HD content, the DVR, VoD, etc, while being price competitive at the same time. Sort of a satellite-ish message, without the dish perched on the roof.

The other option would be to go very low end, especially if you know your network's not robust enough to support HD (and probably will get glitchy from time to time). Then you'll want to offer multiple packages of fewer channels, but at a substantial discount to cable, and try to win on volume, rather than cherry picking the high value subs.

Verizon's plans skew very much in the former direction, and get a little clearer in this Newsday piece (thanks Broadband Reports).

According to the article, Verizon aims to have 130 channels, 20 or so in high-def, all the local broadcast channels. Recapping content deals: "So far, Verizon has deals with NBC Universal, Discovery, Court TV, A&E, Showtime and the NFL Network. That leaves big deals undone, including ones with ABC parent Disney, CBS parent Viacom, Fox and CNN/HBO parent Time Warner."

Price-wise VZ's aiming for the mid- to high- $40s, though bundle discounts are pretty inevitable here.

I'll be writing an update on video over IP later this year, looking in some detail at what consumers tell us they want from the experience, and what would motivate them to change from their current video service provider.