Time Warner fights Netflix by offering TV seasons on-demand

Time Warner isn't shy about its disdain for online-only video services like Netflix, which threaten its revenue from old-school TV providers. However, it's not just going to sit around and gripe -- it's planning to do something about it. The media giant's channels are asking studios to grant them rights to offer full seasons of shows through cable and satellite companies' on-demand services. The hope, as you might have gathered, is that you'll stick to your expensive TV subscription knowing that you can marathon whole seasons like you can on Netflix, Hulu and other services that are friendly to cord cutters.

Will it work? It's hard to say. Studios have sometimes been hesitant to offer those full season rights, since Netflix won't pay them as much if they supply whole seasons to conventional providers. They'd be betting that sheer ubiquity would make up for any hit to their bank account, in other words. And that may be a tough sell when streaming-only services are growing rapidly and frequently overshadow the options from TV providers. Still, this could be good news -- you might not have to bend over backwards to watch shows from TBS and TNT (like Rizzoli & Isles) on your own terms.