MTV, ESPN Join Verizon TV Lineup

Verizon Communications Inc., preparing to start offering television service today, is adding the ESPN sports and MTV music channels to its lineup.

Verizon’s TV service will be carried into homes over fiber-optic lines. The company plans to begin selling it to some customers in Texas in a rollout that could incorporate up to 100 communities.

“We’ve got all the programming done,” Verizon Chief Executive Ivan Seidenberg said in an interview Wednesday in Garden City, N.Y.

The content will help New York-based Verizon, the largest provider of local phone service in the U.S., compete with cable TV providers such as Comcast Corp. Verizon said it had signed deals with Walt Disney Co. to carry 12 channels, including ESPN, Toon Disney and the Disney Channel. Seidenberg said that would be followed by accords with Viacom Inc. for MTV and other channels and with News Corp.

“This is premier content,” said Daniela Spassova, who helps manage $143 billion at Des Moines, Iowa-based Principal Global Investors, which owns Verizon, Disney and Viacom debt. “It’s a good step, but they have a big war to win.”

Rupert Murdoch, News Corp.’s chairman said at an investor conference in New York that a deal between Fox and Verizon was nearly done. In addition to Fox News, News Corp. owns the FX and National Geographic channels.

“We’re about 90% of the way along the negotiations, maybe 99%,” Murdoch said, speaking about a Verizon programming deal at Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s Communacopia investor conference in New York.

Disney’s agreement with Verizon was announced Wednesday by the two companies. Seidenberg said details of the agreement with Viacom would be made public today.

Verizon is testing the Fios TV service in Keller, Texas, near Dallas and is scheduled to begin full commercial service today, said Sharon Cohen-Hagar, a Verizon spokeswoman.

In Keller, there are 8,800 households that could subscribe to Fios, Cohen-Hagar said. The company will expand service in parts of 15 states after it obtains licenses in those areas, she said.