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FiOS On Demand Selection Issues

Hello. My household recently switched from Comcast to Verizon. Since changing, I’ve noticed a couple of differences between Comcast and Verizon. Most of these are small; some of these aren’t. Most of these have been improvements.

But one huge negative thus far is FiOS's On Demand selection vs Comcast’s, specifically regarding HBO’s content.

Comcast had the entire series of The Wire, The Sopranos, Game of Thrones, Vice, True Blood, Boardwalk Empire, Generation Kill, and Deadwood. Additionally, it even had comedies such as Curb Your Enthusiasm, Eastbound & Down, Sex and the City, and The Comeback. It had rarities such as Enlightened — it even had John From Cincinnati! It had dozens of entire series available to watch. Comcast had HBO’s entire library available On Demand, pretty much.

Now, I’m well aware that I can watch this content on my laptop using HBOGO. But the point is to watch it on a larger screen, on a large HD television. After all, Comcast enabled us to do that.

Your Showtime selection is very much like Comcast’s: it’s packed with content, much like your library of Cinemax shows. So why is your HBO On Demand content so thin? On Comcast, I could watch any episode of The Sopranos on any TV that had access to On Demand. But on your service, I must pay to watch The Sopranos On Demand even though I have HBO! Actually, I could drive to the local library and rent The Sopranos and many of the series I listed above — and yet I can’t watch it on FiOS’s HBO On Demand!

And it’s not just HBO’s original series — Comcast also had a FAR more thorough selection of movies carried by HBO On Demand.

Your Starz! content is also lacking when compared to Comcast’s: for example, On Demand, Comcast had the entire series of Spartacus and Pillars of the Earth. On Verizon FiOS? Nope; I have to pay for them (rent or buy) if I want to watch them!

Why should one pay extra to watch shows like The Sopranos, Game of Thrones, and Deadwood when one has already paid for an HBO subscription? Subscribers to HBO and Starz! through Comcast get so much more than what they get from Verizon. This simply doesn’t sound fair to me.

Your On Demand content has greatly disappointed me and my family. Will you be adding to your On Demand library for HBO and Starz, I hope? Why does Comcast have so much more content than Verizon in this regard?

Comcast, too, had this issue. But they fixed it about a year ago, when they began making available more premium On Demand content than I knew what to do with! I’m hoping you’ll be making similar adjustments. Last autumn is when Comcast added this great flood of content to their On Demand offerings — I hope that by this autumn, FiOS will do the same. Because there will be no excuse if FiOS continues to rob its customers of content they essentially already paid for.

I shouldn’t have to pay extra to watch The Sopranos or Game of Thrones on my TV when I’m already subscribed to HBO. Can we all agree on that? Comcast does.

This is my one major problem with FiOS, and I really do hope it’s fixed ASAP. Do that, and you can call me a very satisfied customer.

Comments

SinCara

These are peer to peer forums so you are talking to other customers here.

Ondemand content is all up to the network. As far as them charging for certain shows this could be some kind of contract deal between the content provider and Verizon.

Delita08

These forums are also read by Verizon and are public.

Comcast has all of this content On Demand that subscribers to premium networks can view for free. Verizon, in the case of HBO (and several others) lacks this. And I have not heard anything to confirm that this is somehow HBO's fault. Further, HBO makes all of this content available to subscribers through HBOGO, so I highly doubt that there is some sort of special contract which prohibits Verizon from making this content available while simultaneously allowing Comcast to make this content available.

If one customer gets HBO through Comcast and one gets it through Verizon, the former will be getting a lot more On Demand content. On Comcast, the customer can watch any HBO series they desire, On Demand, for free, so long as they are subscribed to HBO. Much of this content is unavailable through Verizon; some, like The Sopranos, are available only through purchase regardless of whether or not one is subscribed to HBO.

How is this anything but entirely unacceptable?

SinCara

@Delita08 wrote:
These forums are also read by Verizon and are public.
Comcast has all of this content On Demand that subscribers to premium networks can view for free. Verizon, in the case of HBO (and several others) lacks this. And I have not heard anything to confirm that this is somehow HBO's fault. Further, HBO makes all of this content available to subscribers through HBOGO, so I highly doubt that there is some sort of special contract which prohibits Verizon from making this content available while simultaneously allowing Comcast to make this content available.
If one customer gets HBO through Comcast and one gets it through Verizon, the former will be getting a lot more On Demand content. On Comcast, the customer can watch any HBO series they desire, On Demand, for free, so long as they are subscribed to HBO. Much of this content is unavailable through Verizon; some, like The Sopranos, are available only through purchase regardless of whether or not one is subscribed to HBO.
How is this anything but entirely unacceptable?

These forums are not read by Verizon reps. Only mods do and post or reply when needed.

Again, OnDemand content is pushed down from the providers themselves. Verizon doesn't pick and choose. Charges, available shows, etc. will depend upon the content provider and any contracts with Verizon. I can guarantee Verizon isn't just saying "Gee let's start charging for ondemand shows". The network providers wouldn't have that. They know about it, are a part of it and I can guarantee they get a cut from the profits. What the contracts say or what the agreements are who knows.

Comcast runs things different because they are a different company and choose to run things however they want with the content/network providers.

Best advice is if you don't like how things are with Verizon would be to go back to Comcast or find other ways to watch the content. I'm not saying it's fair at all for them to be charging.

There's to much competition for anyone to not be happy with the service provided. If I wasn't happy with Verizon I sure wouldn't have stuck with them for a good 6 and a half years. I hardly use ondemand myself so it doesn't affect me, but someone like you obviously does and many others do.

Don't be surprised if Comcast ends up going in the same direction in the near future though and starts charging for content as well.

Usually when one provider does something the others eventually follow. Perfect example is the broadcast fee, regional sports network fee, etc...

CRobGauth

It may be that Comcast has maybe 5 times as many subscribers so they can get a different deal than Verizon.

I don't see where it woukd be in Verizon's best interest to limit their On Demand offerings unless it is a cost issue. Maybe HBO charges X dollars for content regardless of the number of subscribers. Comcast has more viewers to spread the cost vs Verizon.

SinCara

@CRobGauth wrote:

Comcast has more viewers to spread the cost vs Verizon.

and Verizon's going to have even less viewers once Frontier takes over CA, FL and TX next year.

Delita08

There is a lot of speculation here, but no evidence has been provided that Verizon is trying their best, that this is HBO's fault, that this is due to limited subscribers, etc. Verizon is a large company with a lot of influence and money, and they should strive to give their customers the best.

Verizon has a full listing of Showtime's content. Just like Comcast does. Verizon should work to provide its subscribers with HBO's full content as well. And this makes no sense: all of HBO's content is available through HBO GO, which all subscribers get. It shouldn't be too hard for Verizon to get the bulk of that content into its top box and onto my television.

And I highly doubt that Comcast will start charging for the content I mentioned: they just put it up there last autumn!

But say you have a Roku box/stick or Playstation 3 or 4. Both will allow you to watch HBO GO on your television set, thereby enabling you access to HBO's full library of content. Comcast blocked this on the Roku box until last December, and they are still blocking HBO GO on the Playstation consoles. This practice is bizarre. Verizon is not blocking this at all, at least to my knowledge.

Initially, Comcast had hardly any of HBO's content On Demand, but last autumn they added the whole library. So why allow Roku but block Playstation? It's a confused strategy. You'd think that if they wanted customers to rely on their top boxes, they'd block it full stop.

Rather than pay for any of this additional content, I could just go purchase a Roku box/stick (would need only 1 or 2) and access HBO GO that way. But I don't see why I should have to pay for that when I'm already paying for these Verizon top boxes. Only one tv in the house can get HBO GO: it belongs to my son who recently graduated from college and who owns a PS3. I mean, why on earth would anyone pay for any of this content when they could just purchase a Roku stick?

One could also use a device like the Roku stick to access Showtime's content library through Showtime Anytime. Yet this is unneccesary, as Verizon already provides that content through the top box. Why can't the same be done with HBO? It confounds me.

I had more issues with Comcast than I do with Verizon, and the upgrades are warmly welcomed. But this premium content situation is truly maddening. I don't see how it makes any sense to not have this content available through the top box for all subscribers. I mean, doesn't this in the end help out devices such as the Roku box which are slowing positioning themselves to compete with traditional cable boxes and the companies that supply them?

And once one equips their TVs with such devices, what's to stop them from ordering a smaller cable package through Verizon and replacing the lost programming with alternatives such as Netflix?

billythechemist

Nice writeup Delita08! Going from Comcast(xfinity) to FIOS was SOOOOOOOO DISAPPOINTING REGARDING THE TINY ARCHIVE OF SHOWS IN FIOS ON DEMAND. I would not exaggerate if I said 100 times or more series and movies in the Comcast On Demand. All episodes of Game of Thrones stayed there for years and all seasons, with no rotation. We didn't start watching Game of Thrones until about season 3, fortunately we had Comcast. We easily went from every show in every season starting at the beginning, all complete and 1080p. My wife did the same thing years later as well on Comcast. I bet they still are there. WITH NO ADS. Another person here also noted that on FIOS not only are seasons of shows not there, IF THEY ARE YOU MIGHT HAVE TO PAY FOR ALL BUT ONE SEASON. ON COMCAST I DO NOT REMEMBER ANYTHING IN ON DEMAND COSTING A PENNY! (I THINK THEY ONLY SEPARATED OUT MOVIES THAT WERE NOT LONG AGO OR CURRENTLY IN THEATRES from their On Demand Content. Comcast/xfinity menu was simple. With FIOS you have to go through a whole heirarchy of filters to finally get into free stuff. Also, FIOS CHARGES FOR OLD MOVIES. FIOS rotates what costs or is free, whether newer or older and old movies come up as NEW free content. Which is really OLD pay content. FIOS IS ALL ABOUT GETTING MORE MONEY FROM YOU; EITHER THIS WAY OR WITH THE CHANNELS THAT ARE NOT CHANNELS BUT UPGRADES TO A HIGHER COST faster internet. YOU BUY "THE FASTEST FIBER OPT SPEED" JUST TO FIND OUT YOU DON'T HAVE THE FASTEST BUT HAVE TO PAY A HIGHER MONTHLY CHARGE TO UPGRADE. Nothing xfinity was so nauseating to operate. And they weren't after you for more money constantly. Xfinity gave us this great user friendly email that we still have today. THEY WILL NEVER DISABLE IT! I have been using it for 4 years or more. With a promise that they never will cancel that @COMCAST.net email. But "LOOK OUT! ON FIOS YOU HAVE TO BE CAREFUL WHICH BUTTON YOU PUSH OR YOU MAY HAVE JUST SIGNED UP FOR AN EXTRA MONTHLY CHARGE!" By selecting a channel. The comcast remote is far easier to use and to understand. I am the only one in our family who can navigate the FIOS remote because I spent 2 days with it blindfolded. And we've had it 2 years. Deleting shows from your DVR requires buttons all the way at the top and one all the way at the bottom, so you need 2 hands. OK, so now we are comparing. To be fair, there are 2 things about xfinity that were true 1.5 years ago. (I haven't seen xfinity for 1.5 years, so they could have improved these 2 things by now.) For example, of the 8 or 11 HBO channels, multiple Showtime channels and all the other movie channels, only the main HBO or Showtime or other movie channel was 1080p. The rest were either the correct "aspect ratio," a smaller than TV viewing area with a black frame around them or in SD (4:3 aspect ratio), black on the sides. It may have been the difference between 1920 x 1080p (Blu-ray) and 1024 x 768p (which is really HD, although 1080 is mistakenly called HD often). The other xfinity negative was at the end of our 2 year contract our monthly bill went from about $180 to $300 in about 3 months, in steps!

Now for all my friends out there, here are two helps for you to save money: 1.) when switching back and forth always sign up online as a new customer. You will have to pick a new land line phone number. 2.) is that locally we have an "Office of Broadband and Cable Services" which is on the website of our Rockville City government. I only suspected that Comcast was illegally overcharging us. The person at the office knew immediately that they were and called Comcast directly. Our bill was fixed. I never had to call comcast. A person from the Comcast Executive Office even called me to make sure we were happy. They are afraid of this govt office. Our bill went from something like $209 down to $180, that was in 2014 for Triple Play. But YOU HAVE TO be within the time of your contract. After our 2 year contract, even if it says the contract continues, the terms do not stay the same. And Broadband and Cable Services can not help you outside of a contract duration. I'm sure many other cities and/or counties have the same government office and people do not know it exists. Look at your local govt website and look for a similar name. It only took a phone call to them and they happily fixed our monthly bill for us.

[Deleted User]

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