Now here's an interesting one. Verizon, the carrier who offers up FiOS TV, is actually getting set to launch its very own channel. Granted, it'll only be available to FiOS TV users -- and for now, users in the Washington, DC Metro area -- but still, it's a touch peculiar (albeit useful). For FiOS subscribers in Northern Virginia and parts of Maryland, you'll now be able to tune into Channel 1 (FiOS1, predictably), which will reportedly act as a "one-stop shop for local weather, traffic, news, sports and community features." From now until November 4th, however, it will be airing "rebroadcasts of the three presidential debates and the vice-presidential debate, as well as key speeches from the Democratic and Republican conventions." There's no mention of FiOS1 making a debut in other areas (nor of it going HD), but we'd keep an eye out on Channel 1 just in case.

Update: Seems FiOS1 has been available for a tick, but it's the political coverage that's changing things up. Thanks, urfloormatt!

Coming off a somewhat busy week last week, it seems that Verizon's worker bees are still out in full force (begrudgingly or otherwise) in order to keep those FiOS TV installations going at a rapid pace. Up first, we're seeing the fiber-based programming service head to even more apartments in Northern Virginia, this time to Archstone Apartments in 14 NoVA communities. Next, we're seeing that yet another locale in Washington state (Brier) has awarded Verizon with a video franchise, while four more Massachusetts towns (Northborough, Stoughton, Stow and Sutton) now have the ability to order FiOS TV. We'll see you next week -- here's to hoping your neck of the woods gets covered within the next seven days.

Read - Virginia expansion
Read - Washington expansion
Read - Massachusetts expansion

No double-takes necessary, Cox has just delivered five new HD channels in the Northern Virginia (Fairfax) area. According to a local familiar with the situation (read: watching the tube), subscribers up that way can now tune into USA HD, Bravo HD, SciFi HD, CNBC HD and Lifetime HD. Per usual, it's anybody's guess as to when (or if) these stations will find their way onto other systems, but don't ever give up hope, alright?

[Thanks, Eric]

Not even a month after Cox Communications blessed those in Northern Virginia with 11 new high-definition channels, the cable company is now giving NoVa residents even more HD options. Similar to the rollout seen last summer in Southern California, Cox is giving customers in Fairfax County access to over 20 Starz! and Showtime on-demand flicks in HD. Interestingly, it's still a bit unclear whether any additional HD VOD content was added aside from films on those two channels, so for any Cox subscribers located in this here region, why not fire up your service and give us the skinny?