Live TV Hits More Devices, But Only at Home

Both Time Warner Cable and Cablevision have announced TV Everywhere updates with promises to bring live streaming to more devices. Beyond iPads, the new platforms they plan to support include laptops, game consoles and select smart TVs.

While I’m all for any extra features the cablecos want to throw at us, an expanded ecosystem of supported devices isn’t top on my list. In Time Warner’s case, how about making more content available? Or for any of the MSOs, how about extending streaming outside the house? Cablevision has hinted that it’s working on opening up the geographic boundaries for its app, but there’s no concrete word on when that might happen. And given the heated retransmission battles that continue elsewhere, I have to wonder if this particular streaming fight with content owners will get solved outside of court.

Meanwhile, I’m also curious to know how much demand there is for live mobile streaming. If I want to place-shift my TV, it’s usually to get access to on-demand shows. Or if there is a live event I want to hit, it’s usually coming from ESPN. (Gotta love WatchNow) Perhaps this isn’t a battle cable companies should even be fighting? How much do we need live TV on the go?

3 thoughts on “Live TV Hits More Devices, But Only at Home”

  1. “It’s TV Anywhere! As long as anywhere doesn’t cross your property line.”

    Keeping it on the LAN seems reasonable to me, especially since you aren’t paying a premium for the secondary screen feature…

  2. Blocking jailbroken devices seems unreasonable to me. I’d like to give a big FU to the companies doing this.

    At least praised HBO, Cinemax and Netflix content work on jailbroken / rooted devices.

  3. I am the same. I have had a DVR for a long time and really not interested in watching live TV anywhere, even in my own home. I like the iedea of being bale to use a laptop as a LIVE TV viewer so my daughter can go watch Batchelor, but she does that now from abc.com anyway.

    Give me more options to on demand anywhere. If I could pick from a list of shows recently aired on my smartphone and start watching one when waiting somewhere – that is the kind of convenience I would like

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