Even though it’s still embroiled in a content licensing spat with Viacom over its Optimum iPad live TV app, Cablevision is extending the TV Everywhere push to include Apple iPhones and iPod Touches. The catch: Like the iPad app, content can only be streamed within the home zone.
Cablevision, which lost 23,000 video subscribers in the second quarter of 2011, is looking to sweeten the cable-subscription pot for consumers in an overall MSO market where subscriber drain has been ongoing for several quarters now. Differentiators like multiscreen access can give a pay-TV provider a much-needed leg up when competing with the likes of AT&T U-verse and Verizon FiOS, satellite offers and cord-cutting alternatives like Netflix or Roku. And such options help justify what is typically a triple-digit dollar commitment to entertainment when it comes to monthly fees — a commitment many consumers have a hard time justifying in a down economy. Cablevision in April thus became the second MSO, after Time Warner Cable, to launch a live TV app for iPad.
The updated app for all iOS devices allows subscribers free access to 300 live TV channels and thousands of VOD titles on the smaller screens, and adds a remote control functionality. Offerings on the Optimum app include local broadcast channels, sports and premium programming — pay-per-view is not yet available. It also integrates enhanced guide information that makes it easier for customers to find content, and lets subscribers browse, search and set DVR recordings.
It’s a nice value-add, but it remains to be seen whether a lack of on-the-go access will hamper the app’s popularity — Cablevision has had big success with the iPad live TV app, with some 50,000 downloads recorded in its first five days of launch. But will consumers actually want to watch live TV on the smaller screens of the iPhone and iPod? What is certain is that the move will add fuel to the ongoing content licensing fire underway over Cablevision’s Optimum strategy.
The app streams content to the app by leveraging the in-home set-top-box, classifying it as a broadcast service — the iPad, iPhone or iPod is simply another television screen in that case, the MSO said. Most agree ... with the exception of MTV and Comedy Central-owner Viacom, which has been trying to get Cablevision to remove its channels or expand the carriage arrangement. The media giant sued Cablevision in June, asserting that the streaming capability amounts to double dipping — that is, the cableco is paying licensing fees only once to deliver content on two platforms.
Viacom has called licensing discussions "limited and unproductive."
Cablevision, however, insists that the app “falls within our existing cable television licensing agreements with programmers – including Viacom. It is cable television service on the iPad, which functions as a television, and is delivered securely to our customers in the home on Cablevision’s own proprietary network." Subscribers can "use the App to display content on a mobile device only within the boundaries of his/her residence, and expressly warrants that he/she will not use the App for any purpose while the Subscriber or the mobile device running the App is physically located outside of his/her residence," according to the terms of service.
