Verizon posted a video on Revver this morning that claims to be of FIOS’ one-millionth customer. This is interesting, as today’s issue of The Morning Bridge reports that Verizon only has 348,000 video subscribers. The difference between these two numbers is probably that Verizon is counting all FIOS subscribers (e.g. even those who are subscribing only to telephony and/or data) versus a complete triple or quadruple play of subscribers.
This video apparently debuted at NXTcomm this week. It looks like a staged video, as the customer represented the perfect family in the perfect house (e.g. it would be much more entertaining if a non-perfect family, like the Pyle’s, had been the millionth household chosen). Quality of service/reliability, multi-room DVR, integrated quadruple play billing and cost were things family members tout as better than what they had with their previous provider (not mentioned, but it must have been Cablevision).
This is good marketing on Verizon’s part, as they will get the viral capability of Revver, which also has a deal with Verizon to have their content show up on FIOS and Vcast. Verizon can also use this on their Local Content channel as well.
[Note, the following comment was made by a Viodi View reader to me via email - the person sending this wished to remain anonymous]
“I expect more when reading your newsletter. Verizon’s FIOS numbers never “claimed” to have 1 million video customers. There were many news reports on the NxtComm show that you could have checked on. The 1,000,000 customers include internet, data and video. I knew that before I read your story.
The video didn’t “apparently” debut , it was introduced by Ivan Seidenburg during his keynote address. I also resent your implication that it is staged. This is a typical Long Island family and of course it was Cablevision. There is no one else on Long Island.
A little bit of work on your part could have put this out as a story rather than use words like “claimed”, “apparently”, “staged”, “probably” etc.
Sounds like you have an axe to grind with Verizon. Why question their claims in your blog? Just check some sources .
I neither work for nor am I a customer of Verizon. I do however like to see information presented as factual as possible.”
Fair criticism and thanks for the feedback.
As a bit of background, I accidentally ran across this video on the Revver web site, while looking for something else yesterday. It was a last minute addition to the newsletter. Last minute additions are sometimes a bit sloppy.
I ran across it as an average person would and tried to take that perspective when I wrote my comments. The point that I should have emphasized is that the average person watching this video on the Revver site could easily infer that all million FIOS customers have video, because this millionth customer has video (I also infer that this particular customers has the quadruple play as the wife in the video mentions integration of wireless on their bill).
I agree that Verizon isn’t claiming 1 million video subscribers (and I do point out that the difference is in the double play and triple play subscribers), but, at first glance, even I thought they had 1 million subscribers until I remembered the statistic I saw earlier in the day from The Morning Bridge.
I did see it was posted by Verizon and their policy people on their blog. I think “claims” is a fair word, as I didn’t see independent verification that this was their millionth customer. I used the word “probably” as this blog post wasn’t clear:
http://policyblog.verizon.com/policyblog/blogs/policyblog.aspx
which lead to this one
http://policyblog.verizon.com/PolicyBlog/Blogs/policyblog/EricRabe9/316/One-Millionth-FiOS-Customer-Video.aspx
My fault, as I don’t think I clicked on the final link, which has the full release at:
http://newscenter.verizon.com/press-releases/verizon/2007/verizons-one-millionth-fios.html
That release suggests nearly 500,000 video subscribers.
The use of the word “apparently” was a poor word choice, as I had gone to the Verizon Blog (the poster of the clip) and had seen the reference to Seidenberg’s announcing this at NXTcomm.
I stand by the wording “looked staged” in the sense that Verizon’s crew just didn’t show up at their house one day like Ed McMahon in those commercials and say congratulations you are our millionth customer. It clearly was a pre-produced and edited piece – a well done piece at that. Again, their house was in perfect order and the family was a perfect nuclear family. As I mentioned, but I didn’t go into, it would have been much more entertaining to see the Pyle household with our uncut lawn, decrepit house, yelling kids/parents and toys on the floor, etc.
I didn’t have time to confirm that the competitor was Cablevision and I didn’t think it was too important to the story – it was intended to provide a reference point.
I don’t have an ax to grind against Verizon – I wish they served my area, as their FIOS product seems to provide good value and I have heard good things about it from people who have the product.
I stand by the original point of the story which was that is a brilliant marketing video put out by Verizon. Having said that, as I send this email, my Tee-Ball video has 72 views versus 69 for their video.
Verizon is a public company that is closely regulated and watched by investors. They would never be so foolish as to overshoot their subscriber numbers. The ramifications are too great. It is up to the media to differentiate between video and internet subscribers. Verizon clearly outlined the difference in their newscenter. For building a superior network from scratch, I think Verizon\’s accomplishment of one million internet subscribers is astounding.
Hi CK – Thanks for the comment. You are right that Verizon would not overshoot their subscriber numbers for the reasons you have given. I still suggest that the average consumer (one who wouldn’t dig into Verizon’s web site to get the full story) could come away from watching this video thinking that the 1 million subscribers had Video, Internet, Telephone and, maybe, even wireless.
I am also impressed with Verizon’s efforts to go from slideware to 1 million subscribers in 3 years. I am sure they they will convert many more of their current 6.8 million passings to subscribers as they have a very competitive offering on a platform that is very extensible.
The implications of what happens when Verizon decommissions their copper network, is discussed in this Associated Press article.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/sns-ap-verizon-cutting-copper,0,3819985.story?coll=chi-bizfront-hed
Once FIOS is turned up, the copper plant is no longer needed and Verizon decommissions it – cutting off competitors that used unbundled network elements and eliminating the DSL option for their customers.
Thanks Peter for pointing out this article.