Verizon Sets Live TV iPad App for FiOS

By R.Thomas Umstead -- Multichannel News, 8/23/2010 12:01:00 AM

Verizon FiOS TV is offering subscribers several new video applications over the next year, including an iPad app that will allow live cable network feeds to stream to the Apple tablets.

The iPad app, which is expected to launch sometime next year, will allow authenticated FiOS subscribers to use their iPads to view live content from their cable boxes — within their own homes, Verizon CIO Shaygan Kheradpir said during a Verizon demonstration Tuesday within his New York City home.

Kheradpir said he’s currently in negotiations with content providers to secure rights for the service. But it may take a while to build a robust offering of numerous cable channels; many cable networks are still struggling to find a business model for offering their TV content online.

Kheradpir said the iPad software simulates the functions of a traditional cable box and can be accessed through a free app that downloads a video mosaic of the most popular programming currently being viewed by Verizon subscribers. A Verizon spokesman said that the app will be “platform agnostic” but will initially launch for the popular Apple tablet.

A Turner Networks spokeswoman in attendance confirmed negotiations with Verizon but said no deals have been completed. Verizon showcased live CNN programming as part of its iPad demonstration.

“This is the beauty of FiOS is that we have a cloud TV product, and we have enough capacity to have these streams going simultaneously,” Kheradpir said. “This is not your grandfather’s cable TV.”

On the video-on-demand side, Verizon announced a new multi-platform offering that will allow subscribers to purchase and watch movies and other content across as many as five different video devices.

Consumers can download or rent movies via the television and watch them on a computer; a Droid X or Droid 2-based Verizon Wireless cell phone; a Windows Mobile 6.5-based smart phone; or a BlackBerry Storm, according to Ruchir Rodrigues, vice president of product design and development for Verizon.