Cablevision Opens The (iPad) Firehose

• ƒApproximately 300 channels of live television
• ƒMore than 2,000 titles of Video on demand (VOD) available today, with Cablevision’s full VOD library expected to be encoded and available by early summer
• ƒEnhanced guide information that is fully searchable and able to be filtered based on genre, cast, time of day and favorite channels
• ƒ The ability to schedule future DVR recordings and manage (erase) previously-recorded content
• ƒ Full parental controls (specific to each iPad)
• ƒ Closed Captioning

While other television providers attempt to broker deals and succumb to studio pressure, Cablevision has simply opened the firehose. Your iPad is your television. As with any set-top box, content is delivered from Cablevision’s head end into one’s home and doesn’t rely on Internet delivery. In fact, that’s the crux of Cablevision’s content licensing stance:

Cablevision uses its secure and proprietary cable television network to deliver cable programming to customers for viewing on the Optimum App for iPad, and content is not delivered over the Internet. Cablevision has the right to distribute programming over its cable system to iPads configured in this way under its existing distribution agreements with programming providers.

While I can’t imagine many folks own iPad yet don’t subscribe to broadband, Cablevision will provide a free Internet-disabled DOCIS modem to relay television content into to home. (Making it all sound a bit like AllVid.)

A year from now, I imagine all major providers will have similar tablet solutions and the majority of studios/channels will be onboard. But this weekend, I sure wish I was a Cablevision customer.