Verizon Unveils ‘Custom’ FiOS TV Plan

BOSTON: Verizon has launched FiOS Custom TV, which offers customers a base channel package and allows them to opt in for the additional ones they want to pay to receive.

Dubbed Verizon FiOS Custom TV, the offering is an industry first, changing the way that people buy cable. Each FiOS Custom TV subscriber will have a base package for $55 per month that includes channels such as CNN, HGTV, AMC and Food Network. Customers can select two of seven genre-specific packages—News & Info, Sports, Sports Plus, Kids, Pop Culture, Lifestyle and Entertainment—that include 10 to 17 additional channels as part of the $55 monthly charge. Customers can then add channel packages for $10 a month and change their selections after 30 days.

The move has already come under fire. ESPN has expressed concern that new television packages being offered by Verizon do not comply with its existing agreements. ESPN said in a statement that Verizon's new packages "would not be authorized by our existing agreements." It added that "our contracts clearly provide that neither ESPN nor ESPN2 may be distributed in a separate sports package."