Verizon & Comcast Announcements

Verizon Announces Major Expansion in NY

Now more Verizon Wireless customers can access broadcast-quality television on select mobile TV-enabled handsets right in their neighborhoods. In a continuing effort to provide its customers with a wide range of multimedia and entertainment options, Verizon Wireless today announced the expansion of V CAST Mobile TV service to include:


-- The greater part of Suffolk County including Lindenhurst, West Islip,
Holbrook, Centereach, and from Coram east to Riverhead
-- All of Staten Island
-- Enhanced service in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx
-- Portions of Essex, Union, Passaic, and Morris Counties in New Jersey


V CAST Mobile TV was first introduced in Manhattan and limited portions of the surrounding boroughs and New Jersey in May 2007. Additional transmitters, added in September, expanded the service to include Nassau County, greater areas of Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx, as well as Bergen and Hudson Counties in New Jersey.

V CAST Mobile TV features live content and other programming 24 hours a day from well-known entertainment brands including CBS Mobile, Comedy Central, ESPN Mobile TV, FOX Mobile, MTV, NBC 2GO, NBC News2GO, and Nickelodeon. Customers can watch their favorite network TV shows, sports and breaking news, including weather reports, when they're taking the bus or train to and from work, waiting at the airport, or killing time while waiting for the kids at school or in doctors' offices.

"Better yet, the service comes with parental control features so parents can monitor and restrict the programs their children view," Hand said.

Monthly access packages range from $13 to $25 per month. Four V CAST Mobile TV-enabled phones currently are available: the new Voyager(TM) by LG ($299.99), LG VX9400 ($149.99), the MOTORIZR(TM) Z6tv ($179.99) and the Samsung SCH-u620 ($99.99). All prices are after $50 mail-in rebate and include a new two-year customer agreement. For more information, visit the V CAST Mobile TV Web site at www.verizonwireless.com/mobiletv.

Comcast offers one-stop entertainment shop

Comcast has launched a new Web site, Fancast.com, to provide “a one-stop shop for entertainment,” including availability of programming on a variety TV venues — cable, satellite and Internet — as well as movie theaters through Fandango.

Ad-supported Fancast also alerts users to the availability of programs through DVD renters, Netflix and Blockbuster; DVD seller Amazon and video downloader iTunes.

Alix Cottrell, general manager of Fancast, unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, said, “Comcast has always been in the business of connecting people with their entertainment through the cable box. We wanted to continue that relationship as people moved to watch TV in other places, including the Internet and mobile phones.”

There are plenty of TV guides online.

Fancast is unusual in its scope and also in being provider neutral. When they register, subscribers list their TV provider, including Comcast’s rivals, along with Zip Code so they can receive listings that provide the correct channel to view a show.

The site’s “Watch it” tool informs subscribers where viewers can watch a show, whether it’s at the Fancast site or elsewhere online, through Comcast’s On Demand service, on DVD, or in the movie theater.

Fancast may help a public starved by the TV writer’s strike catch up with TV programs they missed. The service offers free views of 3,000 hours of online video from CBS, NBC, Fox, MTV Networks and BET Networks with such shows as American Gladiators, The Office, the Simpsons, 24 and Family Guy.

Fancast recommends shows to subscribers based on their viewing habits.

The site itself is entertaining: It offers information on more than 50,00 TV shows, 80,000 movies and 1.2 million show biz people.