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Poll: How important is placeshifting?
We know, the dream of the future is to watch all the content we want, wherever we want, but unfortunately the present is a little more complicated. While Dish seem to have the best thing going for "TV Anywhere" with its Sling integration and AT&T has made some strides with U-Verse Mobile, others like Cablevision and Time Warner have only extended the live TV string as far as the bathroom, kitchen or other rooms within your home. TV Everywhere efforts have so far mostly allowed viewing of video on-demand wherever you are like Comcast's Xfinity and HBO Go so we're wondering if true placeshifting is actually a key feature for you right now, or something you can live without. %Poll-62881%
Time Warner Cable brings back Discovery, Fox channels to its iPad app
Just a couple of weeks after removing several channels from its live TV streaming iPad app Time Warner Cable has added most of them back again. The notable exception here are networks owned by Viacom, which it took to court last week. So far, other than announcing Discovery and Fox channels are back on the TWCable TV iPad app, we weren't able to get anything other than a no comment out of anyone at the companies involved. That means we don't know if the channel providers have spontaneously come around to Time Warner's way of thinking (this seems unlikely) or if it has simply decided to press the issue. We'll see who is suing who next week, until then you can enjoy watching whatever happens to be on Fox News Channel, FX or National Geographic (if you actually do enjoy that, we don't like to live by programmers broadcast schedules - DVR4LIFE) on your iPad as much as you like.
Time Warner adds Fox and Discovery channels back to app
It's been a back and forth saga with the TWCable TV iPad app. A month ago Time Warner released the app, which let Time Warner cable subscribers view live TV on their iPads, as long as they were connected to their TWC/Road Runner-powered home networks. Less than two days later, Time Warner had to cut the number a channels in half due to overwhelming demand on their authentication servers. Two weeks after that, Time Warner dropped more channels from the app due to pressure from the channels' programmers, in this case Discovery, Fox, and Viacom. However, not being happy about having to drop the channels, Time Warner went to court and requested a declaratory judgment, asking the courts to rule on whether it could or couldn't show cable subscription channels on the iPad. Time Warner's stance was that the iPad was no different that just another TV screen in the house. (This parallels the experience of Cablevision's Optimum for iPad app, which has also faced challenges from Viacom's lawyers.) So much trouble for one app, huh? Well, today Time Warner announced some good news: Fox and Discovery have agreed to allow Time Warner to show some of their channels in the iPad app. Those channels include Discovery Channel, TLC, and Animal Planet from Discovery and FX, Fox News, and National Geographic from Fox. As for the Viacom channels, for now it looks like their fate on the TWCable TV app remains in the hands of the court. Despite the hiccups, as MacRumors points out, Time Warner has slowly been adding more channels to the app; it now has more than 50 available, depending on your subscription package.
TWCable TV iPad app updated with a few more channels, brings back Discovery
Time Warner has added several new cable channels to its TWCable TV iPad app, including Discovery Channel and Animal Planet, which were two of the channels yanked after broadcasters complained. we don't know if they've worked out an agreement over the matter, but viewers can now enjoy those two as well as TLC, Sundance, Lifetime, Military History and Wedding Central on their tablets. Check out the TWCableUntangled blog for the official word, we'll wait and see if Viacom or Fox budge next.
Viacom says 'not so fast' on that Cablevision iPad app
The pioneering road that leads to watching cable programming on an iPad just got a bit bumpier. Cablevision has received notice from Viacom that the cable provider's iPad app, which provides both live TV and video on demand to subscribers, is stepping over the line in terms of the programming it can legitimately stream via the app. Last week Viacom hit Time Warner Cable with a lawsuit over another iPad app. Time Warner has taken Viacom to court, claiming it has every right to distribute cable programming via iPad as long as it limits the programming to its cable/ISP customers. Earlier this month Time Warner dropped some cable channels from the app in an attempt to please programmers who didn't want content streamed. In a company statement Viacom said: "Cablevision has seized distribution rights that Viacom has not granted. Viacom grants rights to distribute our content based on specific technologies and devices. We will take the steps necessary to ensure that Cablevision respects our rights." Meanwhile, Cablevision countered: "Cablevision's agreements with programmers allow us to deliver cable television service to our customers, regardless of how many or what kinds of televisions they have in the home." Note the key differences in those statements. Viacom thinks it has granted rights to its programming based on a definition of 'television' that means 'box plugged into cable connection'; meanwhile, Cablevision (and Time Warner) are making the case that 'screens are screens' -- regardless of the connection method, if it plays TV programming, an iPad can be just as much a television as a 42" plasma. It may take a long time and a lot of money to sort out (and possibly a linguist to define 'television'). We'll keep our eyes on it and let you know who wins. [Via CNET]
Poll: Are you watching TV with/on a tablet?
Adding a tablet component to your TV service is all the rage among providers and set-top box manufacturers these days (Comcast, DirecTV, Dish, TiVo, Motorola, FiOS, Cablevision, Time Warner, Boxee just to name a few) but our question today is how many of our EHD readers are putting any of them to use. Check out the poll options below and find the one that fits you best, then tell us why in the comments below. Are all these iPad apps just a fad or is the tablet here to stay? %Poll-62573%
Time Warner goes to court over iPad streaming app
And they're off! I thought it was weird that Time Warner was pushing so hard to get streaming cable channels on its new iPad app, but apparently it's ready to back up that stance. The company has just dropped a request for a declaratory judgement on a US District Court, asking the courts to rule on whether it can or can't show cable subscription channels on the iPad. There's more information on the official blog: Time Warner's current interpretation is that the iPad is just like any other TV screen in the house, and since you can already stream Time Warner's content to multiple TVs, there's no reason you shouldn't be able to stream it off to your iPad if you want as well. Sounds reasonable to us, but Time Warner has officially asked the courts for agreement. As Time Warner says itself, this request wouldn't have been filed if it had any inclination it was wrong. Essentially, it's for the providers who have been fighting to keep their content off of TW's app -- if Time Warner gets the ruling it wants, those companies won't have a proverbial leg to stand on. Time Warner says that a resolution should be out soon, and when it is, we'll likely see Time Warner's customers get those channels back that were lost before.
ESPN launches Watch ESPN app that lets you do just that
ESPN is one of those big media producers that has done well on the App Store -- not only has the company released a number of successful apps for its various properties, but the content sells well on iTunes also. Now, the company is actually sending content directly to your iOS device. By downloading a new app called Watch ESPN, and hooking it up to a certain internet/TV provider account, you can watch ESPN and its various spinoff channels right on your iPhone. Currently, the service only works with subscribers to Bright House Networks, Time Warner Cable or Verizon FiOS TV, but ESPN is presumably working with as many other providers as possible to make sure that if you can watch the channel at home, you can watch it on your iOS device as well. This is a very cool bonus for people with the right services, and hopefully we'll see it open up to more viewers soon. This is undoubtedly driven by the attention around Time Warner's cable viewing app, which also allows you to watch streaming cable TV right on your iPad. The floodgates are open with that one -- once one service lets customers choose when and where they want to watch the TV they subscribe to, the pressure's on for all of the other cable providers to do the same.
Time Warner Cable takes Viacom to court over its TWCable TV iPad app; Viacom responds
While there's been a lot of talk about whether or not Time Warner has the right to include feeds of cable channels it carries in the new TWCable TV app, besides the company's voluntary removal of several networks there's been very little action until now. Time Warner Cable announced this afternoon it has filed a request in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York for a declaratory judgement regarding Viacom's cable networks. Time Warner continues to maintain its carriage agreements give it the right to allow subscribers access on any screen in their home, not just the TV and is apparently ready to prove that in court -- or at least drive Viacom, Discovery, Fox and other complaining networks towards more favorable negotiations. The app added seven more channels earlier today, while we wait for Viacom's side of the story you can check out the press release after the break or Time Warner's official blog to understand its stance in full. Update: Viacom has responded, saying Time Warner "blatantly grabbed the rights that their competitors have negotiated in good faith to obtain" forcing it to file a lawsuit of its own. The gloves are officially off -- check the full text after the break, or a PDF of Viacom's complaint linked below.
Cable iPad app roundup: Cablevision counts 50k downloads, Time Warner adds channels, Comcast increases VOD
For whatever reason, cable companies have fallen in love with extending their offerings to Apple's tablet, and as a result we have a glut of news centered around the devices from Cablevision, Time Warner Cable and Comcast. First up is Cablevision's Optimum app, despite upsetting a few sports networks it has passed 50,000 downloads from the App Store and as the press release (included after the break) notes, has been the #1 app in the Entertainment category since Sunday. The TWCable TV app also has good news, it's adding seven channels including Oxygen and Lifetime. While Comcast's Xfinity TV doesn't stream live TV like the other two here, it does have access to video on-demand and the company just announced it's added more viewing options bringing the total up to 4,500 hours of video available, up from 3,000 two months ago. More info is available at the source links, we're just wondering how many of you are actually dialing up any of this content on your iPads?
Time Warner Cable iPad app adds channels to replace pulled ones
I never thought I'd be writing about Time Warner Cable as an advocate for consumers getting more content, but sure enough, that's what the cable provider has become. After being forced to remove some channels from its newly-introduced streaming iPad app, TWC has added a whole list of new channels into the app for viewing at no extra charge, including A&E, Disney, Bravo, SyFy, Travel Channel and USA. TW even gets a little confrontational on its official blog, going poetic on the channels that they were forced to remove from the app: "Instead of rowing down the river of history and into the future, these programmers have chosen to sit on the bank and kick rocks." Them's fightin' words, and it's pretty impressive to hear from a company that has traditionally gotten a bad rep from even its own customers. Of course, all of this is great news for iPad owners with a Time Warner cable subscription, and it's good news for the rest of us anyway, as more choices in content for Apple's devices benefits most everyone. If you've got the iPad app and the service, you can get started watching right now. [via Engadget]
Time Warner Cable's app adds new live TV channels to watch on your iPad
Disputes with Fox, Viacom and Discovery caused Time Warner to pull 11 of the 32 original channels from its live TV streaming TWCable TV app yesterday, but as promised it has brought in some new ones to replace them. Among the 17 channels added are several networks from the ABC/Disney group including ABC Family, Disney, Disney XD and ESPNnews, plus NBC Universal selections like MSNBC, Syfy and USA as well as the curious addition of Fox News. We're still not convinced watching TV on our tablet is a more useful development than using it as a remote/couch companion but until those features arrive or the app gets sued out of existence, that's what this one does. Check the full list of new channels after the break or on the TWCable Untangled blog. Update: There's no word from Time Warner, but Multichannel News reports five more new channels have been added this afternoon - Bloomberg TV, PBS Kids Sprout, Hallmark Movie Channel, Current TV and TruTV. Turner also stated TBS will join them once the app supports MLB blackout restrictions, which is also the reason why other ESPN stations aren't included yet.
Time Warner Cable iPad app drops channels under programmer pressure
Time Warner's TWCable TV app has been forced to drop several channels after some programmers demanded it do so. The app allows Time Warner subscribers to watch TV shows on their iPads without paying any additional fees, and that "no additional fees" part is apparently what some programmers weren't okay with. Time Warner's email to customers detailing the change is full of some great zingers against the programmers who forced this change upon it, and we've reprinted some of them on the next page. Meanwhile, the following channels have been removed from Time Warner's app: Discovery channels: Animal Planet, Discovery, TLC Fox channels: FX, National Geographic Viacom channels: BET, CMT, Comedy, MTV, Nickelodeon, Spike, VH1 Time Warner assures its customers that no other channels are expected to be dropped, and it's working to add channels to replace those it's been forced to remove. .
Time Warner removes channels from iPad app while Cablevision prepares one of its own
Time Warner Cable was the first party to blink in the battle with programmers over its new live TV streaming TWCable TV iPad app, removing channels from Viacom, Fox and Discovery. The company's official statement indicates its merely choosing to focus on the "enlightened programmers" who support its cause and that it will provide replacement channels (maybe BBC America, since it's in all the screenshots) ASAP, possibly as soon as tomorrow. Expect the legal fight to continue to heat up between Time Warner, which believes it has obtained all the rights necessary to provide these channels on any screen in a customer's home, and the programmers, that think it hasn't. Throwing more gasoline on the fire is word from Cablevision that its new iPad app with TV and video on-demand access was supposed to be out already and is merely awaiting Apple's approval before it launches. According to the Wall Street Journal it will go forward launching the Optimum Link -- formerly PC to TV Media Relay -- product that brings video from their PC to the TV tomorrow. Check out the list of pulled channels after the break or on Time Warner's blog, we'll let you know when or if anything changes.
Fox asks Time Warner to stop streaming its channels to customers' iPads
While we'd heard many networks were unhappy with Time Warner's decision to release its live TV streaming iPad app and there have even been whispers of cease-and-desist letters in the offing, Fox has put a request to have its channels excluded in writing. At issue is whether or not their agreement allows Time Warner to provide the channel on devices other than the TV -- while TWC is confident it does since it only works within the customer's home, the networks would apparently like to renegotiate before conceding anything. Senior VP of Fox Networks Group Scott Grogin confirmed the letter was sent but did not reveal any details about its contents. Following the battle plan of its last battle with Fox, Time Warner Cable has preemptively put up a IWantMyTWCableTVApp site asking customers to show support for the TWCable TV app against the networks. We'll wait to see who blinks first and remember that Dish is already slinging channels to tablets with wild abandon while Comcast and Cablevision have plans for similar implementations on the way.
Big cable-backed broadband bill soars through NC House, one step closer to stifling ISP competition
We've said it before, and we'll say it again: Time Warner Cable is made up of some insanely shady folks. And frankly, it's not just TWC to blame here -- CenturyLink, Embarq and a smattering of other big telecom companies are banding together in order to push the ironically-named H129 "Level Playing Field" bill straight into law. Unfortunately, said bill sailed through the clearly oblivious (or "persuaded") North Carolina House this week, with just 37 sane individuals voting against 81 delusional proponents. For those outside of the loop, the bill effectively suggests that commercial entities -- municipal ISPs like Wilson's own Greenlight that provide greater levels of service with lower costs -- are unfairly competing against for-profit monoliths. In short, that's an absolute joke. Rep. Bill Faison nailed it with this quote: "This bill will make it practically impossible for cities to provide a fundamental service. Where's the bill to govern Time Warner? Let's be clear about whose bill this is. This is Time Warner's bill. You need to know who you're doing this for." Yours truly just so happens to reside in the wonderful state of North Carolina, and knows first-hand what it's like to live in a major metropolitan area with a single high-speed broadband carrier. TWC has only recently announced impending DOCSIS 3.0 coverage, but early installations in the heart of Raleigh have been fraught with latency issues and router difficulties. Oh, and it's charging $99 per month for a service with 5Mbps up; for comparison's sake, Greenlight gives customers 10Mbps internet (in both directions), home phone and expanded basic cable for the exact same fare. So, NC lawmakers -- how exactly do your constituents gain access to that "level playing field?" [Image courtesy of IndyWeek]
Time Warner's iPad TV service cut back due to overwhelming demand
Earlier this week, Time Warner Cable released its new iPad app, which allowed users to watch live TV on the device if they met certain key conditions. The app only works when connected to residential networks that are connected to TWC's RoadRunner cable modem ISP service, or the parallel Earthlink service delivered by TWC, and users have to subscribe to a base tier of cable TV service as well. Who knew live TV would be so popular? Apparently the service has already been overwhelmed with demand. Customers couldn't log in yesterday due to the drain on the authentication servers, and Time Warner has had to cut back the number of channels available to watch from 30 to just 15. Keep in mind, this is a huge amount of demand from the relatively small audience covered by the restrictions above. But apparently that was enough -- even with just those users, the service was completely overrun. That hasn't stopped Time Warner from promising improvements, however -- the company still says it plans to add even more than the 30 channels that were supposed to be available at launch, and the service is expected to turn into a Slingbox-style solution, with Time Warner subscribers able to watch television from anywhere. Those days may be a little while off yet, though. Obviously, any setup like that will clearly require a large and dedicated infrastructure to run well.
TWCable TV iPad app struggling with high demand, angry cable channels
Time Warner's TWCable TV iPad app could only serve 15 of the originally announced 32 channels (which curiously did not include BBC America, despite its appearance in these screens from iTunes) due to higher than anticipated demand that crashed the servers last night (Broadcasting & Cable reports the channels have since been restored.) According to the official blog it was the most downloaded app in the iTunes store yesterday and while its engineers work on a more permanent fix, cutting the channel count was the only way to make sure people can actually open the app and log in. However, there may be more than technical difficulties that take channels offline in the future, as Adweek reports several cable networks are upset with the app, quoting one unnamed affiliate head as saying "our position is that [this sort of distribution] is not authorized by our affiliate agreements." Networks like Discovery have already made public their dissatisfaction with Dish's Sling-powered app, with everyone from Comcast to DirecTV to TiVo potentially getting in on the act we'll probably see a slew of carriage disputes and lawsuits before every channel goes the way of ESPNNetworks.
Time Warner Cable's iPad app will be the first with live TV streaming - Update: 32 channels, launches tomorrow
Tablet apps from cable, fiber and satellite TV providers are suddenly a dime a dozen but despite promises of live TV streaming from several companies, the AP reports Time Warner Cable is finally ready to launch the feature first. The company's official blog also teased the app in recent days but so far, iTunes isn't giving any positive results. When it launches, it should enable TV watching, but only when used at home on Time Warner's internet -- you'll need the TV and internet services to access the 30 or so channels initially available. While we keep an eye out for the app to actually arrive, you can get an idea of what it will be like by checking out the demo video from last year, embedded after the break. Update: We've received a bit more information about the app form a tipster, who sent over the document above that shows the 32 channel listing and other details. The app is scheduled to launch tomorrow, March 15, at 7 am, until then , check after the break for the full document that breaks down what levels of service is needed to get access and technical details like availability (not yet Hawaii) and issues with East Coast/West Coast time delayed feeds. [Thanks, 3.0]
Comcast, Time Warner deal ensures TNT, TBS shows for VOD & live streaming
Comcast announced live streaming to its iPad and (upcoming) Android Xfinity TV apps was not far off last month, and now it's announced a new long term deal with Time Warner that brings more content to all of its TV Everywhere-related efforts. That means shows from TNT, TBS, CNN, HLN, truTV, Turner Classic Movies, Cartoon Network and Adult Swim on Xfinity TV.com, cable VOD and mobile apps and the addition of live streaming video later this year as part of a larger agreement between Time Warner and Comcast. The keen eyed will notice that window of "a few weeks" for the debut of live streaming to iPads has expanded to simply "later this year," let's hope this doesn't slip while the company focuses on other balls in the air like its purchase of NBC, a potential new set-top box interface and apps for Smart TVs.
