Verizon
Verizon also aims to expand its rights to content, including TV shows, so it can offer it on laptops and other mobile devices, said Shawn Strickland, vice president of FiOS TV. The company may work on the project with Verizon Wireless, the mobile-phone carrier it co-owns with Vodafone Group Plc.
“Weve got a pretty good partner on that front,” Strickland said today in an interview. “We think next year is going to be a big year for a broad variety of content on different devices.”
Verizons Widget Bazaar will offer applications such as Sudoku games, letting customers use the programs while they watch TV. Smart-phone makers have drawn millions of users to their application sites, led by Apples iPhone App Store. Apple customers have downloaded 1.5 billion programs, which typically cost a few dollars or less.
Starting this month, FiOS customers also will be able to use the service to share home movies or download videos from the Internet to watch on their TVs. While the company already had the technology to offer the new features, the success of video- on-demand services like Apples Apple TV and TiVo Inc. spurred Verizon to move forward, Strickland said.
About 75,000 Internet videos will be available from Blip.tv, Dailymotion SA and Veoh Networks Inc., said Maitreyi Krishnaswamy, product manager of interactive video services at New York-based Verizon. The company also is in talks with other online video services. The clips will be available to customers with Verizons digital video recorder at no extra cost.
Verizon fell 19 cents to $28.86 at 1:29 p.m. in New York Stock exchange composite trading. The stock had dropped 14 percent this year before today.