TWC is adding live out-of-home programming for the first time to its TWC TV app, allowing viewing on Apple mobile devices including iPad, iPad Mini, iPhone and iPod iTouch.
Content now features over 1,100 hours of On Demand TV shows and movies from 26 networks and now up to 11 live TV news, sports and entertainment channels including the Big Ten Network, the Pac-12 Network, TV Guide Network and BBC America. In the NYC DMA, the offering adds NY1, NY1 Noticias, YNN and News 14. The update also improves live TV mini-guide with new filtering and sorting features for the 200-plus live channels available to watch in the home.
“We were the first provider to bring live television to the iPad in the home,” said Mike Angus, SVP/GM, Video for Time Warner Cable. “Since then, we’ve increased the number of platforms and devices on which our customers can watch live television, and added thousands of hours of Video On Demand programming at no additional cost. The release of this TWC TV update is the next natural step towards our goal of giving customers even more of the content they love on every screen.”
TWC TV is available at no additional cost to Time Warner Cable Video subscribers. Channel line-ups vary by market and depend on the video subscription package to which a customer subscribes. In home viewing of the app is available on Apple iOS, Android devices running release 4.0 or higher, PCs and Macs via www.TWCTV.com, and Roku Streaming Players via the TWC TV channel.
RBR-TVBR observation: TWC is the latest to jump into the TV Everywhere pool with live program offerings, after Comcast, FiOS and DirecTV. Letting subscribers watch TV anywhere with a wireless connection battles cord-cutting and improves ratings. While the added viewing platform is currently offered for free, the trend could reportedly add about $1.7 billion a year to MVPD coffers by allowing them to use mobile TV as a way to increase subscriber fees.
It also looks like Dish Network could be next on the bandwagon, with its $25.5 billion bid this week for Sprint Nextel. Dish Chairman Charlie Ergen was quoted as saying consumers want the same TV viewing experience in and out of the home.
