Published December 4, 2006
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Verizon’s TV Service In Philadelphia
To Carry Comcast SportsNet
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Verizon will “start selling its new $18[B] fiber-optic TV service this week to
100,000 homes” in the Philadelphia area, as well as in South Jersey, according
to Verizon and Comcast sources cited by Miriam Hill of the PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER.
Verizon will offer Comcast SportsNet, the channel “that has kept thousands of
area customers from abandoning Comcast in favor of one of the satellite,” as well
as The Golf Channel and Versus. The SportsNet agreement “comes as something of
an eyebrow raiser,” as DirecTV and Dish Network “unsuccessfully lobbied Congress
and the [FCC] for years to force Comcast to share its sports programming in Philadelphia.”
It is “not clear why Comcast agreed to share SportsNet with Verizon.” Because
of an “exemption in federal law, Comcast does not have to share its local content
such as SportsNet with competitors.” But while Comcast has kept sports content
from satellite competitors, “it has shared it with RCN Corp., a cable company
with a small number of customers in the Philadelphia suburbs.” DirecTV VP/Government
Relations Susan Eid said, “Comcast continues to deny tens of thousands of DirecTV
customers and loyal Philadelphia sports fans access to their home teams while
providing their [RSN] to a small cable service and now Verizon, which has yet
to sign up a single customer” (
PHILADELPHIA
INQUIRER, 12/3).
