Verizon Throws Open FiOS TV to Developers

Verizon Throws Open FiOS TV to Developers

by Tara Seals

Verizon Communications Inc. wants to change the broadcast game and for good—by taking an iPhone application approach to the TV model.

Ever consider how cool it would be to customize your television screen view with, say, a Web forum on the show you’re tuned into, or Twitter feeds running along the side of whatever you’re watching? Verizon aims to blur the line between Web and television by opening up its FiOS TV service to third-party developers to write applications that will do all of that and more.

Sure, we all remember Web TV. And the idea of click-to-order television ads has been around for a while. But in practice, Caller ID on the television screen has pretty much been the only mainstream mash-up of triple play services. But what Verizon is proposing is far more revolutionary.

The carrier is emulating what’s happening with mobility and the third-party application store model by giving developers and Internet companies like the Googles and Amazons of the world access to open APIs for FiOS TV. The fruits of their labor will be a variety of widgets that mash up television and Web content for relevant (or irrelevant) purposes. The apps then will be made available in the Widget Bazaar.

Just like the Apple App Store. And look what happened with that—millions of downloads and thousands of available applications and who knows how much revenue for everyone involved.

"Subscribers will be able to go to a catalog of widget services, a bazaar, and choose the ones to display on their FiOS TV systems," Verizon spokesman Eric Rabe wrote in a blog post.

There are some FiOS widgets available already that pop up to feed news, horoscope info, weather, sports and traffic to the screen, and Verizon is working on Twitter and Facebook apps as previously announced. But the inclusion of a third-party developer model has the potential to bring thousands of Apple iPhone-style software bits to subscribers, opening up a whole world of customizable viewing and untold business models. Verizon also plans to take a bite out of the Web-to-TV video threat with the initiative. “We’re also planning several other new services including an easy way to play Internet video on the TV screen,” Rabe wrote. “Those sorts of features are nowhere to be found on old-fashioned cable.”