CES: Seidenberg touts FiOS TV, gaming network

LAS VEGAS—Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg today said at the International CES event here that the company’s new video service would provide a much richer and more personalized experience than the competitive cable offerings. Additionally, he provided a preview of a gaming network that will target hard-core gamers using the company’s broadband network.

Taking the stage to a montage of Black Eyed Peas and Green Day (including bits from "American Idiot"), Seidenberg also noted that the consumer electronics industry has been a huge impetus for broadband deployment.

“As consumer devices became connected, customers started to share their experience real time,” he said.

Verizon, which announced that it has expanded its FiOS TV service to seven more suburbs of Dallas, knows that it can’t come to market with a me-too product, Seidenberg said at a press conference after his speech.

“We have to have a come up with more bells and whistles, better bells and whistles,” he said.

Among the most significant bell and/or whistle is the ability to personalize the TV viewing experience. In several demonstrations at CES, Verizon is showing how its service not only can offer traditional broadcast and video-on-demand fare, but also use predictive modeling to suggest other content and integrate it from a variety of sources. During Seidenberg’s speech, the company demonstrated its MeTV application in which users can watch a football game while having stats related to a specific fantasy league scrolling across the bottom.

“At FiOS TV we’re going to take that experience and personalize it,” said Shawn Strickland, who leads the FiOS TV effort for Verizon. “We’re bringing that information into the TV viewing experience so I can stop running between the TV and the PC every Sunday afternoon.”

The company also is showing off its Verizon Game Network, which lets gamers play on dedicated servers within the Verizon network or drop in on public ones. It also allows them to host their own servers.

“We’re starting to take our message to the serious gamers by hosting events,” Seidenberg said.

Among telcos delving into the gaming market, Verizon is taking a much different approach. Most carriers have targeted demographics that don’t include serious gamers, said Anne Coulombe, director of product marketing-middleware and games for server vendor SeaChange International. SeaChange has the capability to host many of the titles that would appeal to hard-core gamers, but hasn’t had a lot of interest from carriers yet, she added.

Merilyn O’Connell, who heads up the FiOS service, said the company only is able to attract the traditional gaming crowd because of its FTTP architecture that can deliver 100 Mb/s to each house.

“The gamers really love games on the FiOS network because there’s virtually no latency,” she said.

In Keller, Texas, where the company launched FiOS TV last September, Verizon already claims 20% market share and most of its customers are buying the triple play bundle of voice, high-speed data and video.

“It’s only one market but it’s grown faster than just about anything I can recall,” Seidenberg said.