FiOS TV may be coming to Pittsburgh neighborhoods early next year.
A Verizon Communications Corp. spokesman said Wednesday the company is in talks with attorneys representing the city to obtain a franchise to sell television service there. The company would like to strike a deal by year's end, Lee Gierczynski said, but "with the holidays coming up, more likely (it will be) early 2009."
Comcast has the only cable TV franchise in the city, and a Verizon deal would give residents in areas where the telecommunications provider has built its high-speed fiber-optic network a new choice for pay TV. FiOS lines have gone into all or parts of almost 20 neighborhoods.
As Verizon works to expand the reach of its TV service in the Pittsburgh area, the company has refined its program guide, raised its high-definition channel count to 102 -- with 12 to be added by year's end -- and moved toward more games and other interactive features.
A year after its debut in the Pittsburgh area, FiOS TV is available in about 80 suburbs, to 215,000 households. However, the company doesn't disclose how many of those homes subscribe.
Attorney Daniel S. Cohen, who represents the city in the negotiations, said any franchise deal would go to the Cable Advisory Committee for a recommendation, then on to City Council and the mayor for approvals.
Gierczynski said Verizon will expand the fiber-optic network to more Pittsburgh neighborhoods next year. Cohen said the network eventually should reach every street.
"The city has been very clear in requiring Verizon to build out the entire city, not to provide service to certain neighborhoods and leave others behind," he said. Time frames are being worked out, Cohen said.
FiOS TV features, meanwhile, are growing. Anil Guntupalli, Verizon's director of systems and architecture, said yesterday in a presentation at the company's Robinson offices that FiOS TV customers now can:
• Pull up personalized ESPN Fantasy Football statistics -- rosters and box scores, for example -- on TV screens, as they watch games. They must be registered with the cable network's service.
• Look at music and photos stored on their home computers on their TVs, via the wireless router installed in homes with FiOS TV.
• View news, horoscopes and local "what's hot" program and video on demand lists, using the "widgets" button on a remote control.
Soon, they'll be able to:
• Program their digital video recorders, using certain Verizon Wireless cell phones. This feature should be available in mid-December, Guntupalli said. Remote DVR programming already can be done through the Web site.
• View personal videos, plus photos and videos from an Internet social networking page such as Facebook, on their TVs. This could launch in January, he said.
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