New York - Verizon announced on Thursday an agreement with video-sharing site Revver, to offer user-generated videos from Revver for free to its FiOS TV and consumer broadband customers. Revver content is slated to launch on Verizon's Surround broadband entertainment portal by the end of the first quarter, and on FiOS TV later this year.

The first time I learned about Verizon's new FiOS service, I was not online (though they have a great site), but at a festival event near where I live in Virginia.  At the event they had the typical basketball games to win a prize, balloons, and an internet connection to let people find out if the Verizon FiOS network is available in their area.  Unfortunately for me, my home is not in their range yet - but like many cable consumers I would gladly switch if I could.  With a large percentage of US consumers feeling trapped in a cable monopoly with no alternatives, anyone offering the possibility of a choice is likely to be welcomed into the community.  For a company like Verizon which has had to deal with the defection of their telephone customers who are ditching their landlines to switch to VOIP - this welcome from the community must be particularly sweet.