Dish Plans 'TV Everywhere' Web Site This Year
Satellite Operator to Offer Authenticated Access to Premium TV Programming
By Todd Spangler -- Multichannel News, 5/1/2010 7:46:29 AM
Dish Network is preparing to launch a "TV Everywhere" Internet destination as soon as this summer that would let subscribers get access to TV programming on a range of devices.
Bruce Eisen
"All I can really say is, like the rest of the industry, TV Everywhere is important to us," said Bruce Eisen, Dish Network's vice president of online content development and strategy. "We're certainly exploring that."
Dish in September 2009 filed for trademark protection on "TV Everywhere," but the No. 2 satellite operator had not previously indicated that a standalone Web portal for authenticated access to premium content would be offered under that brand.
Dish first will open its TV Everywhere site in an invitation-only beta, and then "we'll probably open it up over the summer, into September," Eisen said.
Comcast is the only pay-TV operator that has launched a full-blown TV Everywhere service, with some 2,000 hours of subscriber-only video offered through its Fancast Xfinity video site from networks including HBO, Cinemax, Starz, TNT, TBS, A&E Network, History, CBS and AMC.
Other operators are in different stages of testing out TV Everywhere services, including Time Warner Cable, DirecTV, AT&T and Verizon Communications.
Separately, Dish in April began offering the ViP 922 "SlingLoaded" DVR, which is listed under the "TV Everywhere" section of its Web site (www.dishnetwork.com/tveverywhere). The receiver uses Slingbox technology to let users access live TV and recorded shows over the Internet on computers and mobile devices.
Eisen declined to identify which programming partners Dish Network is engaged with for the TV Everywhere site, but, he said, "Certainly the goal is to have everybody participating."
Eisen, who is based in Los Angeles, joined Dish Network last fall after serving as president of consulting firm Digital Advisors. Prior to that that, he was a co-founder and executive vice president of CinemaNow, the Internet video-streaming movie portal.
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