Verizon FiOS inks new deal with Outlander, Power broadcaster Starz; Optimum deal lingers

While we may still be waiting for Optimum cable parent company Altice to make a deal with Starz, the future of Outlander and Power is now secure on another major broadcaster. In a statement today, Starz confirmed that they have reached a new carriage agreement with Verizon FiOS that secures their future at the network. It never got to the point in this instance where there was a dark period due to a carriage dispute. Ideally, this is really what any network should want — it’s so much better to focus on content rather than whether or not someone is going to drop you in the midst of discussions.

Here is what Starz chief operating officer Jeffrey Hirsch had to say on the subject of this deal per Deadline:

“Verizon has done a tremendous job in selling our premium services FiOS subscribers … They are an industry leader in offering the best video content for its FiOS TV customers, and we look forward to working with them to enhance the premium experience for their Starz and Starz Encore subscribers.”

This deal is obviously a big win for Verizon FiOS given that it does offer them up some additional goodwill with their customers — nobody likes high cable bills, but everyone hates even more paying cable bills while losing some valuable programming along the way. Starz may have also saw this move as a way to further incentivize Altice to get to negotiating. If one of the other major providers out there, (especially in their region) can secure a new agreement, why can’t they? There are few signs that a deal is imminent right now, but we stand by some of what we had to say on this subject earlier:

Related – Check out the latest Outlander season 4 casting news!

Back when we first wrote about the Altice agreement, we noted that there really was no hurry for a deal to get done. That’s something we firmly stand by now. Negotiations can take weeks or even months in some cases, but if you’re wanting to watch Power this summer, that’s still a good five or six months away. For Outlander, the wait is even longer — think in terms of eight or nine months, give or take. This would go down as one of the worst carriage disputes ever were it to last all that long, and we’re not sure that is something that Altice wants attached to them since it’s a pretty bad move in terms of PR. Hopefully within a few weeks this dispute will be just a blip on the radar and nobody has to worry about it or any other for some time.

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