Verizon Upgrades FiOS TV Widgets

Verizon (VZ - Analyst Report) has announced enhancements to its FiOS TV’s Twitter and Facebook widgets, two recently added free interactive social TV applications. The new upgrades will enable the FiOS TV subscribers to send their own Tweets (text-based micro blog posts on real-time social messaging networks) and update their Facebook profiles using an onscreen keyboard.

Verizon offers the FiOS TV and FiOS Internet services leveraging its high-speed fiber-to-the-premises network. The company is increasingly focusing on adding new functionalities to enhance customer experience of social networking on FiOS TV. These newly added features will enable subscribers additional means to connect with one another while using Verizon’s TV service.

In July 2009, Verizon expanded its FiOS TV offering by adding Facebook, Twitter, ESPN and Internet video services through the launch of a new store: The Widget Bazaar. This initiative is aimed at providing new widgets and applications to the company’s FiOS TV subscribers. Verizon is also opening The Widget Bazaar to the third-party application developers under revenue-sharing arrangements.

Verizon remains significantly challenged by the intense competition from cable TV operators who are aggressively promoting triple-play (voice, Internet and video) offerings to the consumer market. As such, the company is aiming to counter competition from cable and other competing offerings (like satellite TV) by augmenting its FiOS TV offering to include differentiated features.

Expansion of its FiOS TV and FiOS Internet services remains an integral part of Verizon’s long-term growth strategy. The company continues to broaden market penetration of its FiOS TV services, which currently averages approximately 23% across all markets. Subscriber accretion also remains healthy for FiOS TV, as reflected by approximately 300,000 new additions in each of the last two quarters. At the end of second-quarter 2009, Verizon had approximately 2.5 million subscribers across its FiOS TV footprint.

Increased market penetration of the FiOS infrastructure and the ongoing fourth-generation (4G) wireless network upgrade initiatives are expected to strengthen Verizon’s market position against its key rivals such as AT&T (T - Analyst Report) and Sprint Nextel (S - Analyst Report).

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