Bewkes: TV Everywhere Trials In Second Half Of 2009
Would Include Content From HBO, Turner, Other Outlets
Mike Farrell -- Multichannel News, 4/29/2009 12:58:48 PM
Time Warner Inc. chairman and CEO Jeff Bewkes said that the media giant is currently in discussions with several distributors regarding its "TV Everywhere" concept and that trials of the service could begin in the second half of the year.
Bewkes, speaking on Time Warner's first-quarter earnings call wouldn't identify which operators the company is talking to or when the trials would specifically begin. But Bewkes has been a big proponent of "TV Everywhere" concept, which would allow subscribers to cable, telco and satellite TV service the ability to access programming they have already paid for through their subscriptions on multiple platforms, including online and via mobile devices.
Already Time Warner has launched HBO Go, an online version of its HBO service, with about 650 hours of programming - three times the amount available on HBO On Demand - in Time Warner Cable's Green Bay, Wis. system. These trials would include Time Warner content other than HBO, including some from its Turner Broadcasting System and could possibly include programming from other providers, said Time Warner spokesman Keith Cocozza.
But not every programmer has rushed to offer the service - at Cable Show '09 earlier this month Disney CEO Bob Iger said the concept would be difficult to embrace.
On the conference call, Bewkes wondered why every distributor doesn't support the concept, adding that they already have the billing systems in place and provide service to roughly 90% of the television homes in the country. All it would require is the deployment of some type of authentication software to verify that an online viewer is a subscriber.
"The system is simple, it doesn't present any blocks for consumers and it is clearly in the interests of all cable multichannel networks and all video providers," Bewkes said. "The outliers seem to be the broadcast networks, which are clearly in a different position and have different problems."
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