State regulators said Wednesday that Verizon Communications can begin selling cable television programming in New York City, a decision that will is likely to give consumers more choices and potentially lower prices.
Unlike Cablevision and Time Warner Cable, which sell video, Internet and phone services in distinct sections of the city, Verizon’s 12-year franchise requires that the company make its products available to residents throughout New York.
Cablevision and Time Warner are not expected to apply for a citywide franchise when their current agreements expire.
Garry Brown, the chairman of the state’s Public Service Commission, said the approval of Verizon’s franchise “a sure-fire win for consumers in New York City.”
Verizon is spending billions of dollars to build a new, high-speed fiber optic network to deliver those services. Just 20 percent of New York’s 3.1 million households now have access to that network. By the end of 2009, Verizon’s network will reach 30 percent of Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx, while almost every home in Staten Island and about half of Manhattan has access to that network.
A Verizon spokesman, John Bonomo, said the company will announce the details of its new offers in New York in the coming weeks. Not every neighborhood in the 20 percent of the city now covered by Verizon’s network will be able to get television service immediately because central switching offices must still be upgraded to handle video services, he added.
As a condition to get government approval, Verizon must reach every household within six years. The Public Service Commission, citing “the economic realities and scope of building-out the entire City of New York in an environment where Verizon will compete head-to-head with the incumbent cable operators,” gave Verizon six years, instead of five, to meet its target.
To reach that goal, Verizon must negotiate with apartment landlords and other owners to gain access to their buildings, a complicated and time-consuming process.
In the dozens of towns and cities in New York where Verizon has already started selling television, the company has offered introductory prices to convince consumers to drop their cable or satellite services. Often, rival cable and satellite companies have retaliated in kind.
Verizon, for instance, has been selling a bundle of phone, Internet and television services for as low as $69.99 for six months if consumers sign a two-year contract. The company has also offered new customers free flat-panel televisions and other incentives.