|
Since Verizon unveiled its cheaper, slimmer
pay-TV plan on Sunday, Disney, Comcast Corp's NBCUniversal and
21st Century Fox have pushed back and said Verizon's FiOS TV was
violating existing agreements.
A Verizon spokeswoman said Disney was refusing to run the Custom
TV ads on channels such as ABC and ESPN in New York. Fox did the
same in New York, specifically on its stations WNYW and YES
Network, she added.
An ESPN spokeswoman on Thursday said, "The issue here is that
Verizon unilaterally decided" how to offer Disney-owned channels
ABC Family, the Disney Channels, ESPN 1 and ESPN 2 on the Custom
TV service.
When Verizon kicked off its marketing campaign on Tuesday, the
Verizon spokeswoman said, an ESPN radio spot did not go on air
and a video ad that was expected to run was not shown on ABC's
local New York affiliate channel.
However, Disney did run Custom TV ads in Washington, D.C.,
Boston and Pittsburgh, she added.
Verizon's new pay-TV plan lets customers sign up for a
slimmed-down, cheaper bundle of 36 fixed channels through its
FiOS TV and then add on genre-specific packages such as kids,
sports or news. It hopes the flexibility will lure them away
from cable rivals and upstart online TV companies.
"Disney's anti-competitive tactic is only hurting the consumer,"
Verizon's spokeswoman said. "From our perspective there is no
dispute."
Verizon executives have maintained that their product does not
invalidate agreements with content partners.
(Editing by Ted Botha and Andrew Hay)
[© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2015 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
|
