Verizon HD: What's Taking So Long?
I am sure that you have already seen the press release from Verizon announcing that they will be carrying over 150 HD channels by the end of 2008 with around 60 added in the spring of 2008. I was able to also confirm this afternoon with Verizon's press liaison that Verizon would in fact be adding a few more HD channels by the end of 2007, even though their primary HD push will not be until the spring of 2008.
I was not able to confirm as of the time of this posting whether those new HD channels would be national ones or regional sports networks such as Comcast Sportsnet Mid-Atlantic. However, my somewhat educated guess is that they will be the new Discovery networks, namely Discovery HD, TLC-HD, Animal Planet HD and Science HD. Not great, but better than a stick in the eye. I will provide more information on that as soon as I get it.
I was not able to confirm as of the time of this posting whether those new HD channels would be national ones or regional sports networks such as Comcast Sportsnet Mid-Atlantic. However, my somewhat educated guess is that they will be the new Discovery networks, namely Discovery HD, TLC-HD, Animal Planet HD and Science HD. Not great, but better than a stick in the eye. I will provide more information on that as soon as I get it.
The really interesting part of the press release is what was not stated and that was why there was an announcement at all for a deployment so many months away. My take is to stem the tide of lost subscribers. Verizon really miscalculated by not offering more HD in response to the pending large HD deployment by DiIRECTV and Dish Network. Even worse was their failure to add TBS-HD in time for the MLB playoffs. There were a lot of very upset subscribers in the Philadelphia and Boston markets in particular over this oversight (yours truly included) who not only voiced their concerns en mass and very loudly but who switched back to Comcast over this issue.
While Verizon has been adding subscribers, they can’t afford to have a high churn rate due to their costs in doing the installs in the first place. This press release was designed as a way to placate angry customers either thinking or threatening to switch back. The head honchos at Verizon now realize their blunder and are moving to minimize its effect. They are saying, in effect, please wait, we will be adding the HD channels you want, don’t leave. It will be an interesting several months. If I were advising Verizon, I would tell them to take the DIRECTV approach and announce what channels you will be carrying and give a more specific timetable.
That may be enough to stem the tide. Maybe, just maybe.
For more high-def news, please click: TVPredictions.com
While Verizon has been adding subscribers, they can’t afford to have a high churn rate due to their costs in doing the installs in the first place. This press release was designed as a way to placate angry customers either thinking or threatening to switch back. The head honchos at Verizon now realize their blunder and are moving to minimize its effect. They are saying, in effect, please wait, we will be adding the HD channels you want, don’t leave. It will be an interesting several months. If I were advising Verizon, I would tell them to take the DIRECTV approach and announce what channels you will be carrying and give a more specific timetable.
That may be enough to stem the tide. Maybe, just maybe.
For more high-def news, please click: TVPredictions.com
6 Comments:
It could be worse. Time Warner Cable here in Queens is adding 2 additional HD channels in parts of the borough and other parts of the borough are getting 7 new HD channels. Yet we pay the same price
Could be like us here in Time Warner-North Texas ... No new HD channels, and no annoucement either.
Well, i tihnk i have you both beat. Comcast here in West View, a suburb of Pittsburgh, is bandwidth strapped, and is moving cspn2 to digital to free up 6Mhz. Whoopdee Doo, thats 2 HD channels. We have 4 less than comcast offers witin pgh. city limits. Can you say cheap SOB Bryan Roberts ? Not to mention they will not release any info. on when anything will happen. Fortunately, i know that FIOS IS right around the corner, literally. C O M P E T I T I ON !!!
Oh, it's worse than that in Manhattan. TWC added 4 new HD channels 4 months ago; they just added 9 NEWW HD channels in Woodside, Queens. Both can also get up to a 10% discount on their monthly bills. In Manhattan, we pay MORE (no discount available to manhattan residents) for a whole lot less. All because TWC thinks they have us so captured most of us have NO option for satellite OR OTA) AND FIOS will take a long while to really cover all of Manhattan.
To top it off, TWC apparently SO controls the licensing agency that it is being reported the city is doing secret negotiations to get Verizon that necessary license.
NO matter what, as soon as Verizon gets my block wired, THEY HAVE A CUSTOMER.
As soon as I can confirm Direct is carrying MSG HD and Fox Sports NY HD it will be time to leave TWC. Try calling their Customer service dept, they know less than the customers do. TWC treats their future plans as state secrets and will not give a clue to their future HD plans. You can be sure they will carry ESPNNEWS HD as well AS Disney HD as soon as they become available. For these channels they will have no problem finding band space.............
I think you're only partly right about why Verizon did the press release. I don't think they had actually started to get major churn in their subscriber numbers. However, they are clearly hearing from a lot of folks wondering when new HD channels will be added. If this keeps a major subscriber churn from starting it's going to put Verizon in excellent position to meet or beat their subcriber predictions next year.
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