CBS And Verizon Reach Carriage Agreement

CBS Corp. and Verizon Communications have reached a new agreement for continued retransmission of CBS owned stations and wider distribution of CBS Sports Network on Verizon’s FiOS TV in multiple markets across the country, it was announced today by both companies. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

“We are very pleased to reach this agreement with Verizon and its FIOS service,” said Ray Hopkins, president, television networks distribution, CBS Corp. “This deal was reached in a short period of time, and CBS has once again achieved fair value for our over-the-air rights. Verizon is a distribution partner of growing importance to us that provides excellent service to its expanding number of subscribers, and we are glad that this partnership will continue and grow.”

“We’ve reached this agreement in partnership with CBS for our customers, so that they may continue to enjoy CBS content on FiOS,” said Terry Denson, VP of video content and strategy at Verizon.

As part of the agreement, CBS O&Os in various Verizon markets — including New York, Los Angeles and Dallas (cities affected by the ongoing CBS blackout on Time Warner Cable systems) — will continue to be distributed to FiOS TV subscribers. This includes all of the approximately 3.5 million subscribers served in markets where CBS owns stations. (FiOS has approximately 5 million subscribers in total.) FiOS TV will also continue to provide — free to viewers — CBS programming via Verizon’s video-on-demand services to all subscribers.

In addition, the CBS Sports Network will dramatically increase its distribution with FiOS. Separately, CBS and Verizon have an existing agreement for FiOS to carry Showtime Networks and Smithsonian that will continue in the years to come as well.