[January 26, 2006]

Verizon makes a TV push into Hillsborough

(St. Petersburg Times (FL) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Jan. 26--Hillsborough County has reached a tentative franchise agreement with Verizon Communications to allow the phone company to provide TV service to residents in unincorporated parts of the county.

But TV screens won't be flickering on just yet.

Because Verizon is still installing the fiber-optic lines needed to deliver a TV signal to its customers, many households may have to wait several years to order the service. The Hillsborough Board of County Commissioners is scheduled to vote on the agreement Wednesday.

"We have an agreement I'm comfortable in bringing to the board," said Greg Vawter, cable franchise administrator for Hillsborough County.

The tentative pact reached late Tuesday is an important step for Verizon in its quest to launch TV service throughout its Florida service territory. The deal would put Verizon in direct competition with Bright House Networks, the Tampa Bay area's dominant cable company. Verizon already has franchise agreements with the city of Temple Terrace and Manatee County and is in talks with the city of Tampa, Pasco County and Sarasota County. Cable TV rates tend to be lower in areas with more than one cable provider, a plus for consumers that Verizon has been eager to pitch to municipal and county officials as it seeks permission to sell pay-TV services.

Under the draft agreement with Hillsborough County, Verizon agreed to roll out TV service within two years in an initial service area that will include Carrollwood, Keystone and University neighborhoods of unincorporated Hillsborough, as well as areas near the Sulphur Springs section of Tampa and Temple Terrace.

Verizon will be required to provide TV service to most of the rest of the county, including Brandon, Lutz, Oldsmar, Ruskin, Sweetwater and Thonotosassa within the next five years. Other more sparsely populated areas in eastern Hillsborough will be connected later if a sufficient number of households emerge in a given area.

The pact also calls for Verizon to pay the county 47 cents a month per customer to defray the cost of public, educational and government access channels and for an institutional network serving county offices.

The company will be allowed to pass on the cost to customers as a fee on their monthly bills. However, the draft pact leaves unstated the number of access channels that Verizon is required to provide, leaving the matter up to the commissioners to decide. Hillsborough County's Vawter said the county staff plans to recommend that the County Commission require Verizon to offer one public access channel, two educational channels and two government channels.

Verizon spokesman Bob Elek declined to comment on the stipulations of the tentative pact until the commission votes on it.

The city of Tampa continues to make progress in its franchise talks with Verizon, according to city attorney David Smith.

"I think we're really close in being able to get something together for the decisionmakers to look at," Smith said Wednesday, adding that he hopes to reach a tentative agreement by the end of February.

Separately, Bright House Networks is also in talks with Hillsborough County for a new franchise agreement. The company began running 30-second TV ads on Monday asking customers to call county commissioners and urge them to oppose the county staff's request to expand the number of access channels and its request for additional access-channel funding.

"If you don't want more PEG (public, educational and government) channels and fees, tell the commissioners, "No more PEG channels and no more fees,"' Bright House Networks vice president of communications Dan Ballister says in the spot.

It is the latest salvo from the cable company in its effort to minimize its access-channel offerings, which it believes aren't widely watched by its customers. In November, Tampa rejected the company's request to renegotiate its existing franchise agreement to reduce the number of access channels it offers from six to three.

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