Regional sports programmer YES Network, the home of the New York Yankees, has reached a new carriage deal with telco Verizon that will make Yankees games available on-demand through Verizon's FiOS TV service. Under the multi-year VOD deal, the games will be available the day after their initial broadcast on YES, and will remain in Verizon's VOD library for 24 hours.
YES already shows condensed replays of Yankees games through its Yankees Encore program, and Verizon is the first multichannel operator to carry Yankees games in on-demand fashion. The YES on-demand content, which becomes available starting today, Apr. 8 to FiOS TV subscribers in New York and in north and central New Jersey, also includes other YES programming such as post-game shows, the Yankees On Deck series, the Emmy-nominated CenterStage interview show, The Joe Girardi Show and Yankees Magazine.
"This agreement with Verizon ensures that more Yankees fans than ever before can watch YES' Emmy Award-winning Yankees telecasts," said Ray Hopkins, COO of the YES Network. "Verizon customers will have unprecedented access to YES' deep programming lineup, whether it be Yankees-themed shows or our other critically acclaimed interview and magazine shows."
FiOS TV currently offers 14,000 video-on-demand (VOD) titles each month, 70 percent of which are free, and 1,300 of which are available in HD.
The Yankees games on VOD will initially be offered in standard-definition, says a Verizon spokesperson, but Verizon plans to eventually offer them in the high-definition format.
