Verizon Communications Inc. is making good on a promise to add interactive features to its FiOS TV service, announcing that it is rolling out a weather and traffic application.
Called “FiOS TV Widgets,” the service is available at no added charge to FiOS TV customers, offering on-demand access to real-time local weather and traffic information. Subscribers can use their remote control to pull up text-based weather and traffic reports that display in a ticker along the bottom of their TV screens, without interrupting the program they are watching. The feature presents the traffic and weather based on the customer ZIP code, with an option to search for information from other ZIP codes, as well.
"With our new applications like Widgets, customers can better personalize and control their TV viewing,” Verizon senior vice president of video solutions Marilyn O'Connell said. “These services also differentiate FiOS TV in the marketplace by showcasing Verizon innovation and our platform's unique capabilities."
FiOS TV Widgets are the first in a series of features the regional Bell operating company plans to add to the FiOS TV service. Later this year, the telco also plans to add a multiroom digital-video recorder and a feature that lets customers display PC-based photos and music on their television. Several other as-yet unnamed features will be rolled out in 2007.
