• by Wayne Friedman , January 30, 2020

While Verizon’s FiOS pay TV service -- its fiber-based TV platform -- lost 51,000 subscribers in the fourth quarter of 2019, the communications company added mobile phone subscribers, partly due to its Disney+ promotion, according to company executives on an earnings call.

Verizon said it added 790,000 customers to mobile phone plans -- higher than additions from year ago, when it grew 653,000.

The Verizon/Disney+ promotion produced 10 million subscribers for the new Disney streaming platform a day after its launch.

Verizon offered a free year's Disney+ subscription to existing and new customers.

FiOS ended 2019 with 4.15 million video subscribers, down 5% -- 225,000 video subscribers -- for 2019, compared to a 171,000 loss in 2018.

FiOS business -- its TV service and internet -- grew 1% in revenue to $3.1 billion in the fourth quarter of 2019 and 2.1% higher to $12.2 billion for 2019 vs. the year before.

Verizon Media, which includes Yahoo and HuffPost brands, witnessed unchanged revenue in the fourth quarter of $2.1 billion.