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from: Multichannel News

Where PEG Fits In Squarely

_ At a public hearing in New York City on Jan. 17, a man stood up and told city officials about a category of local programming that is cable-exclusive.

"You're not going to find this on satellite," the man said. "You're going to find it on cable."

from: Light Reading

NYC Still Waits for FiOS
JANUARY 17, 2008

After two years, an agreement that could let Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ - message board) bring FiOS TV to New York City is getting close -- but not that close.

A recent report in the New York Daily News citing unnamed sources said that a cable franchise agreement between the City of New York and Verizon was being hammered out and that a deal was "going down now." That might not be completely accurate, however.

from: NY Daily News

Verizon deal could finally offer real competition in cable TV service

Wednesday, January 16th 2008, 4:00 AM

City officials spent Tuesday in secret talks with phone giant Verizon on a new franchise deal that could finally offer New Yorkers real competition in cable TV service.

from: Gotham Gazette

Expanding Wi-Fi Beyond Manhattan
by Joshua Breitbart
08 Jan 2008

Municipal wireless may be struggling in other cities, but New York City's Wi-Fi cloud is growing steadily. In addition to the fee-based access points in Starbucks, McDonald's and other venues, various civic groups continue to deploy wireless hotspots in parks, apartment buildings and lower-income neighborhoods. Late last year, CBS announced it would start offering an advertising-supported wireless Internet service in a tourist-heavy swath of Midtown. But there are many steps the city could take to promote these efforts, especially as it works to promote Internet access across the five boroughs.

from: NY Daily News

City to hold hearings for cable watchers

BY FRANK LOMBARDI
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Friday, January 4th 2008, 4:00 AM

The city is giving cable television viewers a rare opportunity to make some static about the service they get from providers.

from: Gotham Gazette's TechNewsletter

Censored by Verizon

When NARAL Pro-Choice America applied to Verizon Wireless for a code so it could send text messages to Verizon subscribers who wanted to receive them, the organization never expected that the wireless provider would deny its request. AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint, which share almost the entire U.S. market with Verizon, had shown no hesitation signing NARAL up for the five-digit "short code."

Note: We're curious how soon Verizon will start running fiber to housing projects and other low income areas of Manhattan and the outer boroughs.

from: Silicon Alley Insider

Rich New Yorkers To Get Faster Web

Dan Frommer | October 17, 2007 4:30 PM

As if living in one of Donald Trump's buildings isn't its own reward, residents of two of The Donald's towers can soon claim the fastest Internet access on the block. Verizon (VZ) is installing its fiber-optic "FiOS" service in The Trump World Tower at United Nations Plaza and Trump Park Avenue. No FiOS TV yet, though: the service won't be available in New York City for months -- or longer -- while the telco applies for a cable franchise license.

from: NY Daily News

Verizon cable TV deal worth too much to be done in secret

Juan Gonzalez
Wednesday, October 3rd 2007, 4:00 AM

In the next few weeks, the city is expected to conclude talks with Verizon over a new 15-year franchise that would let the telephone giant offer cable TV service throughout the city.

from: LI Biz Blog

Cablevision cries foul

Sep 18th, 2007 by David Reich-Hale

handcables.gifFascinating Viewpoint page in Crain’s New York Business. It’s a must read for anyone as infatuated with the Verizon-Cablevision battle as we are.

The New York business publication writes an editorial demanding that New York City grant Verizon a video franchise so the FiOS provider can start to roll out its TV services in the Big Apple. Crain’s takes a shot at Cablevision and Time Warner, the two cable companies that do business in NYC, by saying “New Yorkers want a choice. A Charney Associates Poll commissioned by Crain’s New York Business found that 51 percent of cable subscribers in the city would switch if they had that option - a startling percentage.”

from: Huffington Post

Even Among a Sea of Cable Channels and the Explosion of YouTube, Public Access Remains Vital

Kate Torgovnick
Posted September 13, 2007

New York City -- In the master control room, four screens reveal what's currently showing on the four stations of the Manhattan Neighborhood Network (MNN). On the first one, a teenager in a wife-beater lip syncs to "Singin' in the Rain," rain drops plopping on his nose as he leap-frogs over a construction barrel where Gene Kelly swung around a street lamp in the classic movie. Beside him, a Neil Young look-alike hunches over in his seat as he lets his out-of-tune guitar wail. On the third screen, a gospel choir belts out a refrain, white robes swishing as they step-touch and clap. On the final screen, a group of Serbian twenty-somethings does a folkdance that looks like Riverdance on Prozac.