Verizon Unveils More Interactive FiOS TV Features, Including Navigational Shortcuts, in Mid-Atlantic Markets

WASHINGTON, Feb. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Verizon continues to deliver the ultimate home-entertainment experience, with the introduction of even more innovative interactive features for FiOS TV subscribers in the company's Baltimore, Hampton Roads, Richmond and D.C. markets.  

New updates to FiOS TV's Interactive Media Guide (IMG) include increased video-on-demand personalization; purchasing power via remote control for Showtime and ESPN programming; gaming widgets and new navigational shortcuts that make exploring the expansive world of FiOS TV faster and easier than ever before.  FiOS TV customers now have immediate access to these enhancements.

"Because FiOS TV is such a content-rich service, we're always finding new and better ways of making it quick and easy to find the entertainment you're looking for and to discover new shows and features through our IMG," said Mary Ellen Payne, Verizon's senior vice president of marketing in the Potomac region.  "Our latest enhancements put new tools in customers' hands to help them better search and enjoy our industry-leading VOD service, evaluate and purchase premium channels, and more quickly access useful features like parental controls and in-depth show descriptions.  

"FiOS TV subscribers know that we'll keep taking their home entertainment where cable can't go," said Payne.

Among the new FiOS TV IMG features are:

• Recommendations For You -- Subscribers can sign up to see personalized VOD recommendations that are based on movies they have viewed and ordered in the past from the FiOS TV VOD library.
• More Like This – Subscribers can click on a "More Like This" button when previewing a VOD title and see additional, similar titles based on actors and genres.  
• On-Screen Premium Programming Purchasing –  
  • Using the FiOS TV remote, subscribers can quickly and easily purchase a weekly pass or full subscription to ESPN pay-per-view events, including ESPN College GameDay and NBA Full Court Pass.
• Quick Guide TV Options – A shortcut that makes it fast and easy to do the following:
  • Set global parental controls or block specific channels.
  • See a list of future times that a program will be shown again.
  • Record a show.
  • See recommendations for shows similar to the one that has been selected.
  • Jump from a menu to live TV.
• Quick Guide DVR (Digital Video Recorder) Options – DVR shortcut providing subscribers with the following options: "play program from the beginning," "select delete," "save until I delete," "initiate parental controls," "select closed captions" and "help."  
• Full Screen Program Information – Provides customers a full-screen view of in- depth program descriptions, including cast, crew and plot synopses.
• Reversi Widget – One- or two-player game displayed on the TV.  Using the arrow keys on the FiOS TV remote control, players move around the board to select an empty space to complete the move.  The player who fills the Reversi board with the most pieces wins.
• Chinese Checkers Widget – Variation of traditional Chinese checkers, with the goal of having one marble left on the board.  The player selects a marble using the arrow keys on the remote control and then jumps over another marble to an empty space, removing the jumped marble.  A player's score is calculated by the number of marbles left and total time spent playing the game.

FiOS TV offers a broad collection of programming, with more than 560 all-digital channels, up to 135 high-definition channels, as well as industry-leading VOD titles.  FiOS provides next-generation interactive services including an advanced interactive media guide; social-networking, news and entertainment widgets; remote DVR management via broadband or cell phone; multi-room DVR; Internet videos on TV; streaming of personal videos, photos and music from home computers to the TV; and many others.  The service now also offers a new Widget Bazaar applications marketplace that includes a selection of free interactive services, including widgets that let subscribers interact with Facebook and Twitter on their TVs.

FiOS TV is currently available to 11.7 million homes in 14 states and Washington, D.C.  For more information on FiOS TV, consumers can visit www.verizon.com/fiostv or call their local Verizon sales office or 888-438-3467.  For the latest news, updates and information about FiOS TV, visit www.verizon.com/newscenter, http://www.verizon.com/athomeblog or www.twitter.com/VerizonMDVADC.

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ), headquartered in New York, is a global leader in delivering broadband and other wireless and wireline communications services to mass market, business, government and wholesale customers.  Verizon Wireless operates America's most reliable wireless network, serving more than 91 million customers nationwide.  Verizon also provides converged communications, information and entertainment services over America's most advanced fiber-optic network, and delivers innovative, seamless business solutions to customers around the world.  A Dow 30 company, Verizon employs a diverse workforce of approximately 222,900 and last year generated consolidated revenues of more than $107 billion.  For more information, visit www.verizon.com.

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SOURCE Verizon