Verizon Fios wants to a player in the cable sports business. They know that both Comcast and DirecTV have spent millions of dollars to offer a number of customer friendly options to their sports crazy subscribers.

“The Ultimate Battle Gameday” will allow soccer fans from Washington, D.C. to Seattle, Washington to host their own World Cup parties.

Oscar Madrid, director of multicultural marketing for Verizon told me:”We are having a series of House Parties for the championship match on July 11, sponsored by Verizon. Fans have signed up to host these parties and we picked those who showed us they had passion for soccer. The winner’s have been supplied with a party pack, including a Flip Ultra Camcorder so our subscribers can easily record the entertainment and reactions to the games. “

The viewing parties are a nice promotion but speaking to fans of Fios in the Washington area what they really like about the service is its interactivity. They have” widgets” that allow subscribers to access computer related data while watching the game or to get real time information about a game while watching another program. They can simply hit one button and be taken to that event via your remote.

Maitreyi Krishnaswamy, manager of interactive video services for FiOS TV and Verizon Wireless talked to me about the widgets as well as a new service that will allow your smart phone to be your TV remote.

Krishnaswamy:”Our widgets are very versatile. They not only give our subscribers the ability to follow the action of their favorite sport in real time they also have a social networking component. So you can be watching an event and let’s say you want to comment on what you are seeing. By clicking on the Twitter button you will see the stream of conversation about the event as you watch and of course you can use your phone or computer to join the conversation via Twitter. There are also Face Book abilities as well. ”

Krishnaswamy:” Verizon has greatly enhanced its mobile remote interface on smartphones, with two new features that offer immediate access to FiOS TV Video on Demand (VOD) and the ability to return to live FiOS TV programming.  Subscribers can now click on the VOD button and browse, search or purchase on-demand titles; or click on the FiOS TV button and jump to live TV when watching recorded programs or respond to interactive prompts. In addition to enhancing and expanding Mobile Remote, Verizon is also expanding its popular remote DVR management application, now available on more than 50 devices including most Verizon Wireless BlackBerry devices and Apple's iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.  Customers can review, change or add recording requests; record an entire series; delete recorded programs; browse and search TV and VOD listings; set parental controls; check their DVR recorder status and more -- all through their mobile device, anytime, anywhere.”

Fios has plenty of widgets for the NFL, Major League Baseball, NBA, soccer and they will be expanding so that fantasy sports data can be accessed via the widgets.

Some very cool technology for consumers to checkout when shopping for a cable or satellite service.