Verizon Tops 1 Million FiOS TV Customers

Nearly 6 Million Homes Can Now Choose FiOS for Their TV Service

In less than 28 months, more than 1 million customers have chosen Verizon FiOS TV, making the company the 10th largest cable provider in the United States. The company announced Monday (Jan. 28) that it surpassed 1 million FiOS TV customers in January after a banner 2007. FiOS TV launched in September 2005.

"Some experts doubted that we could come this far this fast" said Virginia Ruesterholz, president of Verizon Telecom. "We launched FiOS TV just 28 months ago in one Texas market. While we’re delighted to pass the 1 million milestone, we know that the real winners are our customers, who now have a genuine choice for their cable television service" Ruesterholz said.

Verizon delivers FiOS TV, FiOS Internet and voice service on the nation’s most advanced fiber-optic network all the way to customers’ homes.

Verizon added 226,000 net FiOS TV customers in the fourth quarter and a total of 736,000 during the year to end 2007 with 943,000 FiOS TV customers. Including satellite TV customers served in partnership with DIRECTV, Verizon has more than 1.8 million video customers.

At the end of the year, Verizon was marketing FiOS TV to nearly 5.9 million homes in 13 states, up nearly 1.2 million from the end of the third quarter. That means Verizon’s penetration rate for the service at the end of 2007 averaged 16 percent across all markets, particularly impressive since marketing has just begun in many communities. Verizon continues to add new town and city TV franchises every week to continually expand the number of customers who can order FiOS TV.

Verizon announced its 1 millionth customer for FiOS Internet service in June 2007, and at year-end had more than 1.5 million FiOS Internet subscribers, representing 20.6 percent penetration across all markets of the nearly 7.5 million homes open for FiOS Internet sales. Combining FiOS Internet and DSL, Verizon had 8.2 million total broadband connections at year-end, up 17.9 percent from year-end 2006.

For FiOS TV, 2007 was the biggest year yet. Verizon became the 10th largest cable provider in the U.S. by surpassing the total number of customers served by Cable One, which reported just over 699,000 customers at the end of the third quarter. The ninth-largest competitor is Mediacom Communications with more than 1.3 million customers.

Also during 2007, Verizon rolled out its interactive media guide, which gives customers more control of their viewing experience. All Verizon FiOS TV customers now have the new, colorful IMG, and Verizon plans to add more new FiOS TV features, including games and expanded Widgets, during 2008.

Verizon is continuing to add new high-definition channels and programming. The next group of new HD channels will be available to customers in the spring as the company moves toward its announced goal of providing 150 HD channels by the end of 2008.

Verizon FiOS TV delivers hundreds of digital video and music channels, high-definition programming, a library of more than 10,000 video-on-demand titles and other innovative features. The service is available in parts of California, Delaware, Florida, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas and Virginia.