Verizon To Sell FiOS In Comcast’s Front Yard: Report

Until now, satellite has been the greatest competition for Comcast cable dollars in its home base of Philadephia and the surrounding area in Pennsylvania and southern New Jersey. That starts to change this week when, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer, Verizon will start to offer FiOS to 100,000 home in the vicinity. So far, the telco lacks permission to launch in Philadelphia, where Comcast is headquartered but the Inquirer counts agreements with 94 municipalities in southeastern Pennsylvania. Verizon has the right to offer FiOS statewide in New Jersey but isn’t ready to roll out on a massive scale.
In an interesting twist, Comcast has found a way to gig the satellite companies a bit by agreeing to license Verizon the rights to air its SportsNet — something it has refused to do for the satellite companies. Some backstory to the saga I’ve covered off and on for years: terresterially delivered networks are not bound by the same rules as those delivered by satellite, an exemption which has allowed Comcast to withhold the channel from DirecTV and Dish while providing it only to much smaller cable company RCN until the deal with Verizon that also covers other Comcast programming. While the satellite companies take umbrage at not being able to carry the local major sports — usually quite loudly — Comcast and other cable operators don’t have access to NFL Sunday Ticket, which is exclusive to DirecTV. At the same time, U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter has been among those threatening legislation to keep sports from being horded on cable; he has a Judiciary Committee hearing on the subject slated for Thursday at 11 a.m. As the Inquirer notes, the lack of SportsNet has kept satellite from making the same kind of inroads in the Philly area as it has nationally — less than 10 percent penetration compared to 26 percent.
Related: NFL To Webcast Some Games Through Verizon Fios

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