Verizon has announced it will be rolling out 60 new channels to the FiOS TV lineup region-by-region beginning in July, at least 25 of these will be HD.

Verizon today claims FiOS will have between 52 and 65 HD channels, depending upon the subscriber's region. Some of the FiOS channels to receive the HD upgrade are Lifetime, Animal Planet, TLC, Science Channel, and Smithsonian Channel, as well as five new channels from Starz and Showtime.

Though it "puts a high priority" on sports programming, Verizon's sports content has not received much of an upgrade. European international football (soccer) and rugby network Setanta Sports will be added, and Verizon appears to be trying to pawn off the Outdoor Channel HD as a sports network.

International content looks to be an area of interest for FiOS customers as Verizon will add 15 channels from GlobeCast WorldTV. These will include Arabic station MBT, Portuguese station RTPI, and Russian station RTR Planeta.

AT&T's U-Verse wasn't leading for long. In December, AT&T announced that its U-VerseIPTV service would be upgrading to 40 HD channels (a running list can be found here), briefly putting it on top of Verizon in content.

Meanwhile, HD service from Comcast is considering skimping on picture quality to bring customers the 800 HD channels it is claiming it will bring by next year.

FiOS TV is available in 13 US States, with certain notable coverage exceptions.