Are you happy to see TV or is that a fiber cable in your pants?

Experience shows that Verizon can get 10% of households signed up for their FiOS TV service. That result comes about without a huge marketing push. If they can get 20% share overall, Wall Street says that they will pay for their infrastructure investment and produce a respectable return on capital.

Given Verizon's footprint, recent legal victories, and pulling out of New Hamphire; New Jersey is one of the significant areas to go after. I suspect that New York's Long Island is next in line. So, it comes as no surprise that yesterday Verizon sought regulatory approval to offer television in 316 New Jersey communities.

Those 316 communities have 2.1 million television households out of New Jersey's total of 3 million. Verizon hopes to begin offering the service in late December, and to have it available to 500,000 homes by March. For $42.99 per month, Verizon will provide over their fiber-optic network nearly 200 digital channels, more than 20 high-definition channels, and a video library with 3,000 titl

If Verizon can get 10% market share in those preliminary households, they would stand to gross $2,150,000 per month starting in March. By the time they roll it out to all 316 communities and, if they can hit 20% share, they stand to gross $18 million a month - or $210 million annually - from New Jersey.

Verizon has more than 1,000 technicians building the fiber network in New Jersey and expects to hire additional technicians in the coming months.

Cablevision, a significant cable provider in New Jersey, is fighting back by offering 170 digital channels and 22 high-definition channels for $39.90 per month for a year for customers who sign up before Nov. 30.