Verizon FiOS TV up 356% Year Over Year

Verizon has broken the one million TV customer mark for the first time, growing its subscriber base 356 percent in 2007. Clearly, Verizon's network construction and video franchising phase now is yielding to the marketing phase. The next couple of years will provide us with a better handle on just how well Verizon will do as a provider of video entertainment services, but FiOS TV does not appear to have suffered the technology or performance challenges that have beset at&t's U-verse offering in the past.

So the issue now is how well Verizon will do in the market share battle with cable companies, as each swaps share in their legacy businesses while trying to gain the upper hand in the broadband access business. Up to this point cable has had the advantage, gaining more voice customers than Verizon and at&t have gained video customers.

Depending on whose data one wished to cite, telcos either have closed the gap with cable or are taking more new share in the broadband access business than cable companies are. The installed base generally is seen as reflecting a lead for cable, but the installed base gap is expected to close over the next couple of years, by most estimates.