After complaints from TV and cable networks, Time Warner Cable has pulled the plug on MTV and other popular channels that were being fed to subscribers’ iPads.
Time Warner wasted no time in launching more than 20 national channels for its iPad app over the next two days. The additions range from the essential — AMC, CNBC, Disney — to the also-rans — Chiller, Soap, Bloomberg.
TWC called out Fox, Discovery and Viacom thusly: “Instead of rowing down the river of history and into the future, these programmers have chosen to sit on the bank and kick rocks.”
Update: Time Warner Cable and Viacom sued each other over the iPad app on April 7. TWC asked the court to confirm its right to display content in any way it chooses inside subscribers’ homes. Viacom’s suit alleged copyright violations and breach of contract. /update
The iPad app was downloaded more than 300,000 times in its first month, according to week-old figures from TW.
TV everywhere? Not really. The service works only within range of home broadband-connected networks using TW’s Roadrunner pipes. And so TWC argues that it’s feeding just another in-home screen, while the content owners see the specter of lost zillions in online programming fees.
The channels yanked off the TWCable TV iPad App include Animal Planet, BET, CMT, Comedy Central, Discovery Channel, FX, MTV, National Geographic, Nick, Spike and VH1.
“The lawsuits were literally on the verge of being filed when Time Warner Cable said uncle,” the L.A. TImes reports.
TWC press-released the matter like so:
For the time being, we have decided to focus our iPad efforts on those enlightened programmers who understand the benefit and importance of allowing our subscribers — and their viewers — to watch their programming on any screen in their homes. In the meantime, we will pursue all of our legal rights against the programmers who don’t share our vision.
Jeff Simmermon, TW Cable’s director of Digital Communications, has been firing back at the cable networks via his lively Time Warner blog Untangled:
“They don’t want us to talk about this publicly for fear of bad PR — as though our customers are incapable of Googling a few news stories and cross-referencing them against a thinning channel lineup,” the in-house hipster wrote.
During an earlier cheerleading session Simmermon noted: “The entire concept of television is melting right now. It’s oozing off of the credenza and into any number of other rectangular forms.”
The Business Insider blog had this take: “Time Warner Cable — which should have seen this coming long before it launched the app — is running away.”
Isn’t it nice to see two large US media corps suing the crap out of each other rather than the end user for a change..
Yeah … when they do it to each other, it’s a negotiating tactic. When they do it to housewives downloading MP3s, they’re out for blood.
Thanks for the comment, Paul, you just posted the first one on this site. Looking forward to your next one.
I will tell you what, distributors hear the word internet and they see dollar signs in their eyes. And Time Warner really isn’t breaking any rules of their contract, they have the rights to distribute the programming within the house, not outside of it. I work for DISH network, and I can tell you that every providers is trying to find a way to keep subscribers, that is why you see all these different versions of TV Everywhere, and online content portals from all providers now. The customers are demanding the options, Viacom and these other distributors only see money, but what they don’t realize that customers keep cutting the cord that the TV providers won’t have money to keep high price contracts with them, and we will see companies fall in the history books. The television market is changing providers are trying to change with it, but distributors for the most part don’t see the change, which is amazing, some of the have news channels, or poor excuses for new channels. I solved the issue of getting my TV everywhere by adding a sling adapter onto my receiver, and I can stream all my channels I pay for to my iphone. Or if I had an ipad or android, those too, and not to forget the computer. One day I am going to sit outside of Viacom and stream MTV on my iphone just to irk them.
Jason: Funny how there is always a large bloc of the clueless when technologies evolve. The switch from old TV and movie distribution feels much like the disruptive evolution in the music industry, in which half of the business’ value flew out the window while they piddled about in court suing housewives. Thanks for the comment, look forward to your next one!
You are absolutely right Glen, the internet scares them because they can’t control it, and distributors are control freaks. Enough subscribes cut the cord, and we won’t have to worry about watching television online because we will be back just to basic over the air channels, and movies. I mean now you have TWC and Viacom suing each other over the ipad app, which in itself is quite hilarious. I wanna pull a Rodney King and scream at them “Why can’t we all just get along!”