CBS, Verizon Reach Three-Year Content Carriage Agreement - Update

(RTTNews) - CBS Corp. (CBS.A, CBS) and Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) Thursday announced a new agreement for continued retransmission of CBS owned stations and wider distribution of CBS Sports Network on Verizon's FIOS TV in several markets across the country. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

As part of the agreement, CBS owned stations in many Verizon markets including New York, Los Angeles and Dallas, will continue to be distributed to FiOS TV subscribers. This includes the 3.5 million subscribers served in markets where CBS owns television stations.

FiOS totally has around 5 million subscribers. FiOS TV will also continue to provide CBS programming via Verizon's video on demand services to all subscribers, free to the viewer.

Additionally, the CBS Sports Network will increase its distribution with FiOS. Separately, CBS and Verizon have an existing agreement for FiOS to carry Showtime Networks and Smithsonian that will continue.

The agreement has come at a time when Time Warner Cable Inc. (TWC) continues its blackout of CBS content. Earlier this month, CBS dropped its channels from Time Warner Cable's TV service including New York, Los Angeles and other major markets, affecting more than 3 million viewers, after both the companies failed to reach an agreement on fees.

CBS closed at $50.85 on Wednesday, while VZ settled at $47.27.