Choosing to focus on free content over free DVR use and free consumer electronics such as HD TVs and cameras, Verizon Communications Inc. today announced a new FiOS TV deal that provides new customers 90 days of free premium content – HBO, Cinemax, Starz, Showtime, Sundance, the Movie Channel, IFC and free VoD movies that typically carry a charge.
Hoping to give new meaning to “home for the holidays,” Verizon offers the promo to new FiOS customers whether they order the service by itself or as part of a bundle. And the $10 a month online ordering credit, launched earlier this year, still applies.
But while the new promo seems to take free content to a new level when compared to the one that ended last Friday (30 days of free HBO and Cinemax), it imposes charges for what’s likely its most popular digital video recorder (DVR), the Home Media DVR, which had been free for a year in the prior FiOS TV promotion.
Starting yesterday, new customers who sign up for FiOS TV by Dec. 31 will get free access for 90 days to three premium entertainment packages – Cinemax, HBO and FiOS TV’s Movie Package. The previous promo, which expired Oct. 31, offered free access to HBO and Cinemax for only one month.
By contrast, Verizon has dropped its free one-year DVR incentive, specifically for its Home Media DVR. Now, new customers pay $15.99 a month - the price of a standard FiOS TV DVR – for the first 90 days, and $19.99 a month thereafter.
It’s unclear if other DVRs Verizon had offered as free for a year in the older FiOS TV promo now carry charges or not.
With Verizon’s unique Home Media DVR, customers can use one DVR to record programming that can then be watched on up to six other TV sets in the home. This includes viewing up to three separately recorded programs simultaneously on different TV sets, and the ability to pause recorded programming on one set and then continue watching it on another.
