Cable Operators Readying iPad Apps as TWC, Viacom Reveal Some Contract Language
A growing number of cable operators are working on applications for the iPad and other tablet devices, and they are adding functionality to apps already available, they said. Some details of the carriage agreements between Time Warner Cable and Viacom have emerged meanwhile, as they sued each other over TWC’s use of Viacom TV programming on its iPad app. Charter Communications will release an iPad app later this year in conjunction with its TiVo launch and will expand that application’s functionality, a spokeswoman said in an email.
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Cox Communications already has an application for the iPad, iPhone and the Android operating system that lets cable and phone customers remotely manage their DVR and voicemail, a spokesman said in an email. “At this time, the app does not include live TV access,” he said. “We'll continue to evolve the functionality of the app to meet consumer needs, and expectations.” Comcast has continued to augment the programming available on its Xfinity App, it said on its blog this week. The cable operator now offers more than 4,500 hours of VOD, up from 3,000 two months ago. “We'll continue to work in conjunction with … programming partners to deliver hundreds of movies and streaming On Demand choices to the iPad in the weeks and months ahead, and introduce similar functionality on Android-powered devices … in the future,” the post said.
Tier-2 pay-TV operators are looking at TV Everywhere-type deployments more aggressively than their larger peers, said John Clancy, CEO of technology vendor Azuki Systems. As the larger operators make sure their services are “gold plated” and all their legal bases are covered, smaller operators “are thinking a little more aggressively about a way to drive subscriber growth by having TV Everywhere services,” he said in an interview. One reason initial deployments have focused solely on the iOS operating system is because it’s expensive to develop for multiple platforms, he said. “I don’t think anyone is really interested in only doing one device at a time,” he said. “It just happens to be the least expensive path."
Details over what rights Time Warner Cable has to distribute IP video content in the home were hashed out in federal complaints late Thursday (CD April 8 p15). Viacom told a federal judge in New York that its core agreement with TWC “has never been amended to allow TWC to retransmit programming to TWC subscribers by broadband to portable electronic devices,” said a complaint it filed. It said the deal also bars TWC from “materially degrade[ing], or materially and adversely interfere[ing] with” the picture or audio quality of the video. A reservation of rights clause in the contract bars TWC from using Viacom’s programming services “in any manner unless expressly authorized” by the agreement, it said.
TWC told the same court that its agreements with Viacom grant it “broad rights with respect to the high definition feeds of each of the Viacom Services, which are the specific feeds used in connection with the delivery of video programming for in-home iPad viewing,” according to its complaint. “Nothing in the Viacom Affiliation Agreements places any restriction on TWC’s distribution” of Viacom’s networks over TWC’s cable systems to subscribers in their homes “or on the type or number of device that may be used,” it said. “Nowhere in the Viacom Affiliation Agreement is TWC required to deliver the Viacom services only to set-top boxes.”