Two more cable companies are starting to offer their shows on the net to paying customers:
Time Warner Cable, Verizon to test TV on the Web by Reuters: Yahoo! Tech :
NEW YORK (Reuters) -
Two more U.S. pay-TV providers, Time Warner Cable Inc and Verizon Communications Inc, plan to test systems to offer shows on the Web to paying customers in a bid to protect their subscription revenue.
Time Warner Cable and Verizon separately announced their plans on Thursday and will follow Comcast Corp, the largest U.S. cable operator, which said in July it would test a Web TV service with some of its customers.
Pay-TV companies are concerned that the recession-resistant subscription revenue of cable television could be undermined if cable shows became widely available over the Web, effectively cutting out the cable and satellite TV operators.
So the cable network industry, led by Time Warner Inc Chief Executive Jeffrey Bewkes, is testing a concept called TV Everywhere as a way for paying cable subscribers to access cable shows over the Web via an authentication process.
Time Warner Cable said its TV Everywhere trial will include the NBC Universal-owned Syfy channel; Time Warner's TNT, HBO and TBS; Cablevision Systems Corp's AMC, IFC and Sundance Channel; and BBC's BBC America.
