Verizon, Comcast Still Fighting Over Silly VOD 'Channel' CountsMy HD VOD count is bigger than yours! But what about prices?
04:54PM Friday Oct 23 2009 by Karl Bodetags: prices · competition · business · Op/Ed · consumersComcast and Verizon have spent much of the last two years
bickering over who offers the most HD channels or video on demand "options." Despite being
just as guilty as every other carrier in regards to artificially inflating HD numbers (and in reality having a lower HD count than most carriers), Comcast doesn't like Verizon's tendency to count cutesy instructional VOD videos (like how to fold a towel) as "choices" in advertisements for their VOD catalog. Verizon in turn doesn't like Comcast ads that
point this out. Months have passed, and the two companies are
still fighting over VOD program counts:
Verizon Communications' claims that FiOS TV now offers nearly twice the on-demand offerings as Comcast are "absolutely untrue," Comcast senior director of corporate communications Alana Davis said. In an announcement Thursday, Verizon said it had increased the size of its video-on-demand service to more than 18,000 titles per month. "That's nearly twice the VOD offering from the country's largest cable provider," the company claimed. However, according to Davis, the majority of Comcast markets offer at least 17,000 VOD titles, and some -- including Philadelphia -- currently top 18,000.
It's all been rather silly, given the average customer probably can't even watch a fraction of the content already offered to them, and couldn't care less if their carrier offers slightly fewer VOD options. In a year or so, as most carriers surpass 100 HD channels, carriers are going to have to start focusing instead on things that actually
do matter, like picture quality and pricing. Imagine if Comcast and Verizon put the kind of effort they've put into bickering over VOD counts into fighting over who offers lower TV prices?