Verizon is now marketing FiOS TV service to about 23,000 households in the Albany, N.Y., area touting introductory pricing of $100 for a triple-play bundle for the first 12 months and a bigger HD lineup than incumbent Time Warner Cable.
On Friday, the telco began offering FiOS TV in parts of four communities in the Albany suburbs: the towns of Bethlehem and Guilderland, and the villages of Colonie and Scotia.
Verizon expects to expand that availability to 38,000 more households in the market, with franchise agreements with city of Schenectady and the town of Colonie pending approval by the New York Public Service Commission, director of media relations John Bonomo said.
FiOS TV offers more than 535 total channels in New York, including 130 HD channels in Albany's Capital District market. The telco is not currently seeking a franchise with the City of Albany itself; Bonomo said the primary focus for Verizon is completing existing franchise commitments "rather than seeking and building in new areas and securing new franchises."
According to Verizon, the company has spent more than $1 billion in wireline network infrastructure across New York State each year since 1995. It now has 183 video franchises in the state, each with buildout commitments of five years, with the earliest franchises awarded in 2006.
"Consumers and small businesses in these communities at long last have a better choice for TV," Tracey Edwards, president and general manager for Verizon's upstate New York region, said in a statement. "We've had great success in many other parts of the state. Now it's time to bring FiOS TV to this part of northeastern New York and provide customers in the region a choice that is truly different from the cable TV company."
Asked to comment about the FiOS TV launch in the Albany area, Time Warner Cable spokeswoman Lara Pritchard said the operator "has a breadth of product and local service that differentiates us from all of our competitors." Those include YNN 24-hour news; sports programming like Siena College basketball and other NCAA Division I collegiate sporting events; Look Back and Start Over video-on-demand services; and TWC's newly launched iPad app that provides streaming of up to 32 live channels.
"We will continue to do what we've always done -- take care of our customers, regardless of who comes to town with new claims of superiority," Pritchard said.
