CBS, Verizon Announce Content Carriage Deal; No Terms Disclosed

CBS Corporation

and Verizon Communications Inc.

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 Corporation. "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, Vice President of Video Content and Strategy at Verizon. "Verizon continues to address areas of change where necessary in current policies to better reflect the interests of consumers." As part of the agreement, CBS owned stations in various Verizon markets including New York, Los Angeles and Dallas, 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 television stations. (FiOS has approximately 5 million subscribers in total.) FiOS TV will also continue to provide – free to the viewer – CBS programming via Verizon's industry-leading 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.