May 28, 2008
Move over [Insert your favorite celebrity who endorses cable products], Kevin Garnett is here! From the Boston Herald,
The popular forward for the Celts, now engaged in an NBA playoffs showdown against the Detroit Pistons, is starring in a 30-second ad that touts Verizon’s cable FiOS TV services, including the system’s “home media” products.
The national ads, which started airing yesterday, will run for a couple of months, a Verizon spokesman said yesterday.
Seeing Garnett pitch for Verizon is interesting in itself. What makes it more interesting? Comcast, the other cable giant, owns Comcast SportsNet which is the home of Celtics Basketball. More interesting? Verizon carries its programming to 70 Massachusetts towns, but not to Boston itself. So to review…Kevin Garnett, a star player for the Boston Celtics is a spokesmen for Verizon the cable company that does not carry Boston Celtics games and is not available in the city of Boston. How does Verizon feel about it?
Comcast yesterday indicated it wasn’t intimidated by Garnett’s towering presense for Verizon, which also carries Comcast SportsNet’s Celtics games.
Referring to Verizon as a “phone company,” Comcast spokesman Jim Hughes said no other competitor “comes close” to its coverage of the “amazing Celtics” and other New England sports teams via its on-demand and high-definition services.
It is always interesting when conflicting situations like this pop-up…wonder if this would make Comcast want to try to work out a deal to become the official cable carrier of the NBA, or some sort of non-compete deal if subscribers actually switched to Verizon because of Garnett?
See Garnett’s Verizon Commercial Here.
Boston Herald — Garnett scores TV commercial deal with Verizon
One comment
Verizon ain’t just a phone company anymore as they’ve been chewing up ground (to lay their fiber optic cable) and Comcast customers alike. Comcast has some serious competition on their hands now. KG looked a little “wooden” in his commercial but its likely another sports star is on the Verizon horizon.