TV Choice and Competition Near for Residents of Bedford, N.Y.

TV Choice and Competition Near for Residents of Bedford, N.Y.

Community Approves Video Franchise for Verizon

NEW YORK, Nov. 25 /PRNewswire/ -- Residents of the Town of Bedford in Westchester County are a major step closer to having a real choice for their cable television service, thanks to a newly approved agreement authorizing Verizon to offer its FiOS TV service, delivered over the most advanced fiber-optic network straight to customers' homes.

Bedford's town board approved a franchise agreement Tuesday night (Nov. 24).

The addition of the Bedford cable television franchise brings to 169 the total number of New York municipalities that have authorized Verizon to provide FiOS TV service.

"A total fiber network triggers key differentiators and technology innovations like FiOS' multi-room DVR and on-screen Twitter and Facebook applications," said Andres Irlando, Verizon president for the New York region. "These are features that traditional cable just can't provide. And this franchise agreement clearly demonstrates the customer demand for choice in broadband, television and entertainment services."

One of the largest New York employers with more than 32,000 employees in the state, Verizon is continuing to invest in the state's infrastructure by building, maintaining and enhancing its wireline and wireless networks across New York, including its state-of-the-art fiber-optic network, providing consumers and businesses with reliable FiOS services for their Internet, entertainment and voice services.

FiOS TV Service Highlights

FiOS TV service highlights include:

-- More than 500 all-digital channels grouped by genres such as
entertainment, sports, news, shopping, movies and family, making it
easy for audiences to find their favorite programming.
-- 132 HD channels in the downstate New York market, with extraordinary
clarity and theater-quality sound.
-- An industry-leading library of more than 18,000 video-on-demand (VOD)
titles each month, 70 percent of which are free. In addition, the VOD
library includes 2,400 HD titles per month.
-- An innovative interactive media guide (IMG) that helps customers
quickly and easily find and enjoy content from TV listings, VOD
catalogs and the digital video recorder (DVR), as well as personal
music and photos from a home network. Among the features of the IMG
are:
-- Multi-Room DVR - Verizon's Home Media DVR allows customers to
stream recorded HD and standard-definition programs to up to six
other TV sets with set-top boxes throughout the home. This
includes the ability to watch three separately recorded shows on
three TV sets at the same time, plus pause recorded programming in
one room and continue watching in another.
-- Media Manager - This feature lets FiOS DVR customers access
personal photos, videos, music and slide shows from their home
computers and play them on their TVs. Subscribers also can search
for and enjoy online videos from blip.tv, Dailymotion and Veoh on
their TV screens.
-- Remote DVR management - Subscribers can remotely control their
DVRs online, and via any cell phone with a data plan. Customers
can use the service to remotely review, change or add recording
requests; delete recorded programs; browse and search TV and VOD
listings; set parental controls; and more.
-- Widgets - Customers have one-touch, on-demand access to local
traffic reports, daily local and national news headlines, fantasy
sports, daily national sports headlines and daily horoscopes, as
well as FiOS TV's Widgets Bazaar with interactive social
applications from Facebook and Twitter. Additional widgets
include:
-- ESPN Fantasy Football - FiOS TV customers who are registered
users of ESPN Fantasy Football will have instant on-screen
access to personalized NFL statistics, including rosters, box
scores, scoring leaders and player information.
-- Pro Football Widget - One-stop access to NFL stats and the NFL
RedZone channel, giving customers who subscribe to the channel
the ability to set on-screen alerts for whenever a team is
moving inside its opponent's 20-yard line.
-- Weatherbug Widget - Provides instant access to real-time,
personalized weather information and forecasts. Customize
weather reports by any ZIP code, pull up hourly or seven-day
forecasts and view radar weather imagery to see how local
conditions are developing
-- KODAK Widget - This widget gives registered KODAK Gallery
users instant on-screen access to photos and slideshows that
they have stored on Kodak's online digital photo service.
-- Free casual games - With the remote control and an HD set-top box,
customers can access chess, solitaire, sudoku and wordplay.
-- "What's Hot on FiOS TV" - Features information on the most-popular
programs currently being broadcast in the region and the most
popular VOD titles.
-- Dual Pause and Play - Allows customers to pause live programming,
change channels, and then return to the paused program and pick up
where they left off.
-- Channel sorting options - Customers can create two separate lists
of favorite channels for family members. Customers also can
filter channels in the guide by genre, for instances where a
customer only may want to see HD content, international channels
or kids programming, among others.

Programming choices for Hispanic, African-American, Asian, Russian and other multicultural audiences are available in every market, making FiOS TV an outlet for emerging and independent networks to showcase their diverse programming.

Verizon's fiber network delivers amazingly sharp pictures and sound, and has the capacity to transmit a wide array of high-definition programming that is so clear and intense it seems to leap from the TV screen. In addition to FiOS TV, Verizon's fiber network also delivers Internet download speeds of up to 50 Mbps (megabits per second) and upload speeds of up to 20 Mbps, as well as high-quality voice service.*

Bedford joins a growing list of New York communities that are paving the way for competition and choice in the television market. In addition to Bedford, Verizon has been granted cable television franchises in the following municipalities:

City of New York

Long Island

Amityville, Asharoken, Atlantic Beach, Babylon, Baxter Estates, Bayville, Bellerose, Brightwaters, Cedarhurst, Centre Island, Cove Neck, East Hills, East Rockaway, East Williston, Farmingdale, Floral Park, Flower Hill, Freeport, Garden City, Great Neck, Great Neck Estates, Great Neck Plaza, Head of the Harbor, Hempstead (Town), Hempstead (Village), Hewlett Bay Park, Hewlett Harbor, Huntington, Huntington Bay, Islip, Kensington, Kings Point, Lake Grove, Lake Success, Laurel Hollow, Lawrence, Lindenhurst, Lloyd Harbor, Long Beach, Lynbrook, Malverne, Manorhaven, Massapequa Park, Mill Neck, Mineola, Munsey Park, New Hyde Park, Nissequogue, North Hempstead, North Hills, Northport, Old Field, Oyster Bay, Oyster Bay Cove, Plandome, Plandome Heights, Plandome Manor, Poquott, Port Washington North, Rockville Centre, Roslyn, Roslyn Estates, Roslyn Harbor, Russell Gardens, Saddle Rock, Sands Point, Sea Cliff, Smithtown, South Floral Park, Stewart Manor, The Branch, Thomaston, Valley Stream, Westbury, Williston Park

Westchester County

Ardsley, Briarcliff Manor, Bronxville, Buchanan, Cortlandt, Dobbs Ferry, Eastchester, Elmsford, Greenburgh, Irvington, Larchmont, Mamaroneck (Town), Mamaroneck (Village), Mount Kisco, Mount Pleasant, Mount Vernon, New Castle, New Rochelle, North Castle, Ossining (Town), Ossining (Village), Peekskill, Pelham Manor, Port Chester, Pound Ridge, Rye, Rye Brook, Scarsdale, Sleepy Hollow, Tarrytown, Tuckahoe, White Plains, Yonkers, Yorktown

Rockland County

Airmont, Chestnut Ridge, Clarkstown, Grandview-on-Hudson, Haverstraw (Town), Haverstraw (Village), Hillburn, Montebello, New Hempstead, Nyack, Orangetown, Piermont, Pomona, Ramapo, South Nyack, Spring Valley, Stony Point, Suffern, Upper Nyack, Wesley Hills, West Haverstraw

Dutchess County

Fishkill (Town), Fishkill (Village), Poughkeepsie (City), Poughkeepsie (Town), Wappinger, Wappingers Falls

Orange County
Cornwall, Cornwall-on-Hudson, Newburgh (City), Newburgh (Town)

Erie County

Amherst, Blasdell, Hamburg (Town), Hamburg (Village), Kenmore, Lackawanna, Orchard Park (Town), Orchard Park (Village), Tonawanda, West Seneca

Putnam County
Carmel, Kent

Onondaga County

Camillus (Town), Cicero, Clay, DeWitt, East Syracuse, Fayetteville, Geddes, North Syracuse, Salina, Skaneateles (Town), Skaneateles (Village), Solvay

Cayuga County
Fleming, Owasco, Sennett

* NOTE: actual (throughput) speeds will vary.

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ), headquartered in New York, is a global leader in delivering broadband and other wireless and wireline communications services to mass market, business, government and wholesale customers. Verizon Wireless operates America's most reliable wireless network, serving more than 89 million customers nationwide. Verizon also provides converged communications, information and entertainment services over America's most advanced fiber-optic network, and delivers innovative, seamless business solutions to customers around the world. A Dow 30 company, Verizon employs a diverse workforce of more than 230,000 and last year generated consolidated revenues of more than $97 billion. For more information, visit www.verizon.com.

VERIZON'S ONLINE NEWS CENTER: Verizon news releases, executive speeches and biographies, media contacts, high-quality video and images, and other information are available at Verizon's News Center on the World Wide Web at www.verizon.com/news. To receive news releases by e-mail, visit the News Center and register for customized automatic delivery of Verizon news releases.

Source: Verizon

CONTACT: Media, John Bonomo of Verizon, +1-212-321-8033,
John.J.Bonomo@Verizon.com

Web Site: http://www.verizon.com/

Company News On-Call: http://www.prnewswire.com/comp/094251.html

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