Skip to main content

ESPN and Verizon reach settlement in FiOS Custom TV lawsuit

Fios TV Package
Edw/Shutterstock
Just over a year ago, Verizon launched its FiOS Custom TV service, which offered customers the chance to subscribe to a base package and add additional smaller channel packages as they wanted. One of these was a sports package that included ESPN and ESPN 2, something the network wasn’t happy about — it wanted its channels included in the base package.

Prior to the launch of the Custom TV service, ESPN said its relegation to a sports package was in violation of its contract, but Verizon didn’t budge, so the network sued. The two companies won’t be heading to court, however, as today ESPN and Verizon announced that they had reached a settlement. The exact terms of the settlement aren’t being shared, and will remain confidential.

“We have a long-standing relationship with Verizon,” said Sean Breen, senior vice president, affiliate sales, Disney and ESPN Media Networks. “We look forward to working with them to provide great content to consumers for years to come.”

When Custom TV launched, customers paid $55 per month for the base package, with two bundles included in the base price, with extras for around $5 per month each. In January of this year, Verizon made changes to Custom TV, offering ESPN and ESPN 2 as part of a $70 bundle, though it said this was due to customer feedback.

This new comes just as Disney is preparing to report its earnings for the first quarter of 2016, as Variety points out, and Verizon might have its own reasons to want to settle quickly. With the announcements last week that both Hulu and YouTube are going to offer their own cable TV replacements in 2017, the company might deem it increasingly important to keep ESPN channels as part of Custom TV.

“ESPN is an important partner of ours,” said Terry Denson, Verizon’s vice president of content strategy and acquisition. “We look forward to further collaborating with them to deliver customers content across all of our platforms.”

Editors' Recommendations

Kris Wouk
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Kris Wouk is a tech writer, gadget reviewer, blogger, and whatever it's called when someone makes videos for the web. In his…
The best animated movies on Netflix right now
A cat points a bat at another cat in Puss in Boots: The Last Wish.

While Nimona has been the big Netflix original animated film of the summer, it's far from the only addition to the lineup. Netflix is making sure that animation fans are well served in August with the first two Despicable Me movies, Bee Movie, and Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2. However, Netflix's biggest recent addition is one of 2022's biggest animated hits: DreamWorks' Puss in Boots: The Last Wish.

Netflix's deals with Sony Pictures Animation, DreamWorks Animation, and Universal Pictures have given it a powerhouse library of animated films. And that's before we even get into Netflix's impressive originals like The Sea Beast. To help you keep track of what's new and what you can stream right now, we've updated our list of the best animated movies on Netflix.

Read more
From Barbarella to Howard the Duck: the 7 cheesiest sci-fi movies ever
Howard the Duck in "Howard the Duck."

The science-fiction genre has a vast smorgasbord of cheesy films stretching way back to the early days of cinema. Such pictures are known for their weird stories, unrealistic dialogue, low-budget productions, and exaggerated acting.

While many of these films have been panned by critics and audiences alike, some of them have garnered success for being "so bad, they're good." Whether or not they have been held up by a dedicated fan base, these seven movies stand out as the cream of the cheesy sci-fi crop.
Flash Gordon (1980)

Read more
10 best Batman stories ever, ranked
Batman Year One cover

Bounding from rooftop to rooftop, the Dark Knight never misses his mark. He operates like a well-oiled machine tracking bad guys, beating them to a bloody pulp, and throwing them in the slammer - or Arkham Asylum should they be anyone of Gotham's notable supervillains. As the brainchild of Bob Kane and Bill Finger, an artist and writer duo, Batman has been pounding the pavement of Gotham ever since his debut in Detective Comics in 1939. He's undergone a number of changes since his original conception ultimately becoming the brooding powerhouse we know today.

Most understand the basic tenants of Batman these days. His parents were murdered before his young eyes leading him down this path of personal vindication and pursuit of justice. Batman, in most iterations, never resorts to killing -- the one crime that separates his outlaw vigilante operations from the real criminals. Of course, it wasn't always that way. In Batman's earliest days, he had no qualms about ending the lives of baddies on the streets. Even now, some stories and films like Tim Burton's gothic take on the character depict him looking on with cold and uncaring glares as criminals meet their end. Regardless, Batman is mostly a well-established hero simply seeking justice and there are countless stories of the Caped Crusader. Let's take a look at the best among them.
10. Hush

Read more