Portland FiOS TV Subscribers Get Comcast SportsNet Northwest

Verizon Communications Adds Regional Sports Network to Video Offering

By Jon Hemingway -- Broadcasting & Cable, 1/17/2008 11:45:00 AM

Verizon Communications FiOS TV subscribers in Oregon will soon be able to tune in to the National Basketball Association's Portland Trail Blazers.

Verizon is adding Comcast SportsNet Northwest to its FiOS TV service in the Portland area. The channel will be available in standard-definition on channel 66 on the Premier programming package, and Verizon expects to add the HD version later this year.

Comcast SportsNet provides coverage of regional professional sports in the Northwest including 50 exclusive Trail Blazers NBA games and approximately 60 National Hockey League games, 25 featuring the Vancouver Canucks. The channel also covers college sports at the University of Oregon, University of Portland, Portland State University, University of Washington and Oregon State University.

"We know that Portland sports fans are passionate about their teams and expect their TV provider to carry all of the action,” Verizon marketing director for the West Coast Dustin Kroeger said in a statement.

Verizon began marketing FiOS TV in the metro Portland area late last year, initially passing 152,000 households. The telco is aggressively expanding the video-service rollout to directly compete with incumbent cable operators. At the end of the third quarter, FiOS TV had 717,000 subscribers nationwide.