It has been a busy week for the TV Everywhere test project.  First, two premium movie networks — HBO and Starz agreed to participate in the trial, and now CBS, the first broadcast television network, today announced it was signing on as well.

CBS will be running a mix of older and current shows as part of the trial with Comcast subscribers, probably including its popular shows like CSI and NCIS, which are already available in some areas online through Comcast’s “Fancast” portal and through Time Warner Cable’s Primetime on Demand channel, available on digital cable.

“CBS and Comcast share the same vision of giving consumers more — more content, in more places,” said Matt Bond, Executive Vice President of Content Acquisition, Comcast Cable.  “On Demand Online is a major step in extending consumers’ television experiences online, and ultimately across platforms by giving any television network, including top brands like CBS, the ability to make their content available on the Web.”

CBS historically has avoided partnerships with the cable industry.  It is the only network that never launched a cable network (ABC Family, MSNBC, CNBC, fX, and others on offer from other networks), and also steered clear of a partnership with Hulu, which has ABC, Fox, and NBC among its partners.

The network is interested in the potential exposure its shows might have on-demand, particularly among younger viewers.  But more importantly, being friendly to the largest cable companies around may prove fruitful when the network wants retransmission consent agreements signed, permitting cable companies to place the network’s owned and operated local TV affiliates on the cable dial without a lot of aggravation and negotiations over fees.

TV Everywhere will offer “authenticated” subscribers to cable television or satellite service access to on-demand, streamed video programming through broadband networks.

Verizon has announced a deal with the city of Pittsburgh to begin rolling out FiOS services to city residents by the end of this summer.

This gives the city its first wired competitor to incumbent cable provider Comcast, whose franchise renewal is due at the end of this year.

Verizon FiOS will charge residents $47 per month for 250 standard definition channels plus local high definition channels, and $11 more for several dozen HD channels and more than a dozen sports networks.

Some suburban Pittsburgh customers can already access FiOS broadband products, as the company has wired parts of Banksville, Beechview, Bloomfield, Brookline, Carrick, East Hills, East Liberty, Friendship, Garfield, Highland Park, Homewood, Larimer, Lincoln-Lemington, Morningside, Overbrook, Point Breeze, Regent Square, Stanton Heights and Swisshelm Park.  Completing agreements to send video down the network to add a “cable TV” type service is expected to be a relatively simple process, according to Verizon officials.

[flv width=”428″ height=”240″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/WTAE Pittsburgh FIOS Arrives in Pittsburgh 7-6-09.flv[/flv]

WTAE Pittsburgh Reports on Verizon Agreement with the City of Pittsburgh

City residents can expect to see service available within the next six years, or the company will be subjected to fines by city officials.  But Verizon should have service available far earlier, starting with most of the North Side, some South Hills neighborhoods near suburbs, the business district downtown, and parts of Lawrenceville.

In return for a franchise agreement, Verizon will mimic Comcast’s agreement with the city, handing over 5% of gross revenue.  Verizon has also agreed to install dedicated fiber optic service between some city public safety buildings, $700,000 to upgrade the city’s video equipment, in part for local government proceedings, and 52 cents from each customer will be designated towards providing the viewer with public, educational, and local government channels.  A total of five channels will be reserved: two for government, one for public access, one for educational use, and a fifth reserved for the future.

More video on this story below.

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Some additional details are emerging about the content partners and networks likely to participate in the joint Time Warner Cable-Comcast TV Everywhere (as long as you are a pay cable/telco video/satellite TV subscriber) partnership.

Turner Broadcasting (long since out of the control of Ted Turner, who was essentially escorted to the door years ago) is a key partner, which means TNT and TBS original series will be an essential part of the new service.  The network’s programming is already streamed to around 5,000 cable TV customers participating in a market trial.

Among the original shows the TNT and TBS networks air:

The Closer
Raising the Bar
Saving Grace
Leverage
My Boys
The Bill Engvall Show
Tyler Perry’s House of Payne

Also agreeing to participate in the venture: Rainbow Media, Scripps Networks and A&E Television Networks. That means you should also expect to see shows from these cable networks:

AMC
WE tv
The Independent Film Channel
Sundance Channel
HGTV
Food Network
DIY Network
Fine Living Network
Great American Country
A&E Network
History (Channel)
History International (Channel)
Bio (Channel)
Military History (Channel)
Crime & Investigation Network

The ultimate goal? To obliterate YouTube and Hulu TV as the most popular video websites in the United States.  Jeff Bewkes, CEO of Time Warner, fully expects TV Everywhere to be the nation’s largest and most popular destination for online video.

Some technical notes about accessing the service from Multichannel News:

At first, Comcast’s On-Demand Online content will be available only to customers who subscribe to both cable TV and broadband services, over only a Comcast-provided Internet connection through a subscriber’s cable modem, and via only the Comcast.net or Fancast.com portals. The MSO chose to “authenticate down to the subscriber level” to ensure the service will have a higher level of security out of the gate, said Comcast senior vice president of new media Matt Strauss.

Whereas Comcast had intended to provide On-Demand Online to subscribers solely through its own Web sites over its own broadband networks, Time Warner’s TV Everywhere imagines a decentralized way to let consumers log in to any participating sites to access content, including those run by the content owners.

Now Comcast has agreed to eventually allow video subscribers to access Time Warner’s content via TNT.tv and TBS.com, over any broadband connection they choose, although the specific mechanism for doing this hasn’t been determined yet.

Cable operators have been looking for a way to expand their broadband service to outside the home, and Comcast, Bright House, and Time Warner Cable have found their answer: WiMax technology from Clearwire.  They’ve joined Intel and Google as minority investors, collectively owning 25% of Clearwire, after investing more than $3 billion dollars in the wireless broadband service.  What do they get for the buy-in?  The chance to market Clearwire services to their cable broadband customers for “on-the-go” broadband.

Comcast High-Speed 2go Metro service launched Tuesday in Portland, Oregon providing consumers with portable speed up to 4Mbps in Clearwire’s own 4G network service area.  Comcast customers can sign up for a promotion for $49.95 a month for one year, which includes their wired cable modem service, a Wi-Fi router, and Clearwire wireless service (regular price after the promotion is $72.95 monthly).  Customers can access the service in any Clearwire 4G service area nationwide.  Where Clearwire doesn’t offer service, customers can “roam” on Sprint’s 3G data network nationwide for an additional $20 a month more.  There are no known usage limits at this time.  Existing Comcast broadband customers in Portland can add the Clearwire-based service starting at $30 a month.

The service will work for laptops, but not mobile data devices.  Comcast’s investment in Clearwire made such a venture possible, and is expected to compete with mobile phone broadband data plans, which typically offer 5GB of service for $50 a month.

Comcast will sell service in Atlanta, Chicago and Philadelphia by the end of 2009.

While the service will be useful for Comcast customers who travel or who want more reliable, fast wireless data access, Clearwire’s ability to serve as a true competitor to Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Bright House may be compromised by those partnerships.

Could Clearwire effectively create promotions and plans that could lead to customers cutting the cord on their cable broadband provider?  Should cable companies increase their investments and ownership interest in Clearwire, would it ultimately matter to them where you obtained service?

Helping to spur additional competition, AT&T announced the availability of its U-verse service in parts of Corpus Christi, Texas and the communities of Springfield, Champaign, Danville and Decatur, all in central Illinois.

“Today’s launch of AT&T U-Verse reflects our commitment to make the investments necessary to bring consumers across central Illinois a new era of true video competition,” AT&T Illinois president Paul La Schiazza said in a statement.

In Illinois, dissatisfied Comcast customers were tearing up one of the local newspaper’s message boards.  Here’s a sampling:

• Now maybe Comcast will get better service and lower their OUTRAGEOUS prices.
• Comcast: Can you hear the sound of competition and angry customers? Can’t wait to get a cable carrier that actually plays all of the available Cardinals’ games.
• Will they have it in Chatham? I will be ready to sign up to get rid of Comcast! What parts of Springfield will get U-Verse, and what parts will be left out in Comcast’s cold?
• I can’t wait to get rid of Commiecast.