Verizon Launches Bollywood-Themed Dance Contest to Highlight Company's FiOS TV South Asian Video Content

NEW YORK - Aspiring dancers can enter Bollypop, an online dance competition sponsored by Verizon to help showcase the growing amount of Bollywood movies and music videos the company offers its FiOS TV and V CAST customers.

The Bollypop (www.verizon.com/bollypop) contest is open to all U.S. residents and is maintained by Saavn, the largest digital distributor of South Asian movies, music videos, audio tracks and ringtones. Contest entrants can be either individuals or dance troupes (maximum of four performers) and must submit a video of any dance moves to one of 11 Bollywood songs. 

The video with the most votes will win the grand prize, which includes airfare, hotel and transportation to Mumbai, India, and an appearance in a Bollywood film. Additionally, the grand prize winner or winners will get a three-day trip to New York City to attend a celebration in their honor.

"We're excited to bring this fun contest to our customers," said, Shruti Joshi, director of marketing for Verizon. "As Verizon expands the number of international movie and music channels on FiOS TV and offers more South Asian content, contests and programs such as this one will allow us to connect with the growing base of customers who enjoy Bollywood movies."

Bollywood is the name of India's film industry, which produces more than 1,000 movies annually. Bollywood movies are typically musicals that feature six to eight songs and major dance sequences. Reflective of the popularity of Bollywood movies, the category has become the highest-grossing foreign film sector in the U.S. 

Acclaimed Bollywood choreographer Rujuta Vaidya, said, "Like Latin music did a few years ago, Bollywood is on the cusp of becoming part of the mainstream; because Bollywood fuses all forms of dance including hip-hop and classical Indian music, it appeals to a wide audience."

Verizon FiOS TV customers can access through the video-on-demand (VOD) library, several Bollywood movies and music videos for $7.99 per month, or order individual movies starting at $3.99 per film. Verizon offers its FiOS TV subscribers more than 10,000 VOD titles each month, 70 percent of which are free. The VOD library also includes an increasing number of high-definition (HD) titles, with plans for 1,000 HD VOD titles per month by the end of the year.

FiOS TV customers can also order TV Asia for $14.99 per month atop their basic FiOS TV Premiere package, which offers more than 400 all-digital channels.

With V CAST Music from Verizon Wireless, customers can also access over 100 of the latest Bollywood music videos on their handsets for $4.99 per month. Interested customers can select "Bollywood Music by Saavn" from the music category on the V CAST videos menu.

Anyone who registers online at BollyPop, sponsored by Verizon, will receive a free Bollywood music compilation courtesy of Verizon. The deadline for entry is Oct. 7, and winners will be announced at the end of October.

All routines must be choreographed to one of these songs from popular Bollywood movies which can be downloaded at www.verizon.com/bollypop:

Dance video files for the online contest must be submitted in one of these formats: QuickTime (.mov); MPEG (.mpg); MPEG-4 (.mp4); Windows Media (.wmv); or AVI (.avi).

One video entry is allowed per person, and entries must be original works that have neither been previously published nor infringe upon the copyrights, trademarks or other intellectual property, or other rights, of any person or entity. For complete rules of the Bollypop dance contest sponsored by Verizon, please visit www.verizon.com/bollypop.

About Saavn
Saavn brings the best of Bollywood to the world. As the largest digital distributor of Bollywood entertainment, Saavn owns rights to hundreds of movies and over 250,000 music tracks, 20,000 music videos and 10,000 ringtones, including titles such as Jodhaa Akbar, Race and Jaane Tu...Ya Jaane Na.  Saavn distributes its exclusive catalog and new Bollywood releases to over 75 global media companies including Time Warner, Verizon and iTunes. Its flagship Saavn.com is an online community that connects 4 billion global Bollywood fans around a shared interest in Bollywood, bringing them a rich Bollywood experience with free streaming audio and video, and robust playlist and profile pages.  Saavn is a joint venture of [212]MEDIA and Hungama Mobile and has offices in Mumbai, London, New York, Los Angeles, and Toronto. To find out more, visit: http://www.saavn.com

About Verizon
Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ), headquartered in New York, is a leader in delivering broadband and other wireline and wireless communication innovations to mass market, business, government and wholesale customers.  Verizon Wireless operates America's most reliable wireless network, serving more than 67 million customers nationwide.  Verizon's Wireline operations include Verizon Business, which delivers innovative and seamless business solutions to customers around the world, and Verizon Telecom, which brings customers the benefits of converged communications, information and entertainment services over the nation's most advanced fiber-optic network.  A Dow 30 company, Verizon employed a diverse workforce of approximately 232,000 as of the end of the first quarter 2008 and last year generated consolidated operating revenues of $93.5 billion.  For more information, visit www.verizon.com.

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