Time Warner Expands 'TV Everywhere' Offerings with Verizon

Adds Adult Swim, Cartoon Network and truTV to the mix

By Glen Dickson -- Broadcasting & Cable, 8/19/2010 5:20:36 PM

Verizon announced Thursday that it will be making more popular programming from Time Warner available online in on-demand fashion, as it continues to promote Time Warner's "TV Everywhere" initiative that uses authentication to let viewers watch cable programming they're already paying for on their PCs or laptops.

Verizon, which has been offering online shows from TNT and TBS since June, will now offer shows from Adult Swim, Cartoon Network and truTV. Programming will be available on "FiOS TV Online" within 24 hours after an episode airs on live television.

"We are excited to further the TV Everywhere initiative by making content from Adult Swim, Cartoon Network and truTV available to FiOS TV customers," said Michael Quigley, vice president of business development & multi-platform distribution for Turner Network Sales, in a statement. "We look forward to partnering with other distributors to reward customers with access to our popular networks when and where they want."

The announcement comes a day after Verizon executives demonstrated a number of new FiOS TV applications at the New York home of its CIO, Shaygan Kheradpir. The demonstrations included FlexView, a new service that will let VOD or electronic sell-through (EST) customers watch a movie they've rented or purchased on up to five devices, including PC, laptops and smartphones; "My Cloud," which gives remote streaming access to pictures and audio files that are stored on a PC or laptop connected to the FiOS TV home network; and a live streaming application for cable programming on Apple's iPad tablet that was used to show CNN being delivered through a home Wi-Fi network.

The iPad application, which features a program guide consisting of a mosaic of popular channels which subscribers can browse through, is basically using the iPad as a "software set-top box" which captures CNN as an IP stream being delivered through Verizon's robust fiber network, explained Kheradpir. Verizon is currently talking about the streaming service as being limited to customers' homes, as opposed to "TV Everywhere," which gives on-demand access to authenticated subscribers wherever they have an IP connection.

While the iPad application could theoretically be extended to devices like connected TVs and eliminate the need for a hardware set-top, Verizon plans to continue traditional QAM delivery of cable channels like CNN to traditional set-tops for the foreseeable future, said Kheradpir. Instead, applications like iPad streaming, and others that draw on-demand content from Verizon's IP-based "cloud," are aimed more at improving the user experience than cutting capital costs.

They could also give cable operators and programmers new ways to monetize their content, he added. The streaming application could be used to deliver customized ads to a subscriber watching CNN on an iPad, which Kheradpir said was an easier way to deliver targeted advertising than inserting targeted ads within the broadcast CNN feed. The streaming application could also theoretically be used to deliver linear cable programming outside the home through wireless networks. But there are both bandwidth and business considerations to such a move, including the effect it might have on Verizon's existing mobile TV service with FLO TV and the wishes of Verizon's programming partners.

"The technology has been Mount Everest, and we've climbed most of it," said Kheradpir. "This has not been easy to do, and we're not at the peak of Everest yet. But at least we now have something to talk about."