Time Warner Cable is the latest cable, satellite or IPTV company to soon bring out an iPad app that will make watching TV easier. Thus far, it involves an interactive program guide that can be used to schedule recordings and act as a remote control, but eventually the company plans to let viewers stream programs to their iPad wherever they are. Users would also be able to watch part of a program on their portable devices while returning from work, for example, and continue to view the program in their living rooms once they get home.
Browsing the program guide and searching for specific programs would also be made easier through the use of metadata and the ability to group programs by category. There is the possibility that users will be capable of creating personalized content or recommendations based on what they view regularly.
The app was built by Time Warner Cable and web service APIs were built around it. Time Warner can share these with third-party developers to make their own applications for devices other than the iPad. This may include Internet-connected TVs, smartphones, other tablets and gaming consoles. [viaNewTeeVee]
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Two more U.S. pay-TV providers, Time Warner Cable Inc and Verizon Communications Inc, plan to test systems to offer shows on the Web to paying customers in a bid to protect their subscription revenue.
Time Warner Cable and Verizon separately announced their plans on Thursday and will follow Comcast Corp, the largest U.S. cable operator, which said in July it would test a Web TV service with some of its customers.
Pay-TV companies are concerned that the recession-resistant subscription revenue of cable television could be undermined if cable shows became widely available over the Web, effectively cutting out the cable and satellite TV operators.
So the cable network industry, led by Time Warner Inc Chief Executive Jeffrey Bewkes, is testing a concept called TV Everywhere as a way for paying cable subscribers to access cable shows over the Web via an authentication process.
Time Warner Cable said its TV Everywhere trial will include the NBC Universal-owned Syfy channel; Time Warner's TNT, HBO and TBS; Cablevision Systems Corp's AMC, IFC and Sundance Channel; and BBC's BBC America.
CBS Corp and Discovery Communications Inc are also involved in the trial.
Time Warner Cable's test involves making TV shows available on the Web to 5,000 homes of paying subscribers. They will be able to access the shows on the networks' own websites, as well as on Time Warner Cable's Web properties.
Verizon, meanwhile, will launch a TV Everywhere trial of its FiOS TV online with programing from Time Warner's Turner networks, TNT and TBS for no extra cost to FiOS subscribers.
DirecTV Group Inc, the largest U.S. satellite TV provider, is also working on a version of TV Everywhere, according to a person familiar with its plans.
While cable network owners are determined to stop the successful pay-TV television business model from being undermined by programing made available free on the Web, the major broadcast networks have taken a different approach.
Because free-to-air broadcasters are dependent on advertising revenue rather than subscriptions, they have made their shows readily available over the Web. Sites like Hulu, owned by News Corp, NBC Universal and Walt Disney Co, are free to anyone and feature broadcast network programs such as "The Office" or "House."
In a few cases, some episodes of full cable programs are now available free on the Internet.
(Additional reporting by S. John Tilak in Bangalore; editing by Gerald E. McCormick and Andre Grenon)
.
All you art collectors out there. Here is a chance to get a Giclee copy of some of Ian M Sherwin work. Ian is planning on doing a whole series of Marblehead, Massachusetts paintings. His work is amazing.
.
Posts
