Cablevision iPad App – 50,000 Downloads in Five Days
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Just 4 days ago, Cablevision surprised many in the industry with their Optimum iPad app, especially after the company’s new innovation let its subscribers watch up to 300 live TV channels and access over 2,200 video on-demand titles.
After 50,000 downloads since its release, the application has become the most popular iPad app in the Entertainment category in the App Store.
Cablevision’s new concept has also catapulted the application into the 10th most popular free iPad application.
Needless to say, the cable company is quite excited about the consumers response. “We are very pleased by the strong and positive consumer reaction to the Optimum App for iPad, reflected by download activity, ratings and reviews,” Cablevision senior vice president of video product management Gary Schanman said in a statement.
However, this success story has a few detractors. We already told you about Time Warner’s situation with Fox and Viacom, in which the content owners requested Time Warner to remove their channels from the TWCable TV app.
Consistent with Time Warner’s story, the YES Network, which carries New York Yankees and New Jersey Nets sport games, has informed Cablevision it does not have the rights to distribute its content via the iPad. Will Cablevision follow the same path as Time Warner, and remove the YES Network from its iPad streaming app? Maybe not so fast.
When Cablevision released its iPad application, the cable company issued a statement clarifying their rights to distribute content. “Cablevision has the right to distribute programming over its cable system to iPads configured in this way under its existing distribution agreements with programming providers,” said Cablevision after announcing their iPad app.
The company has been down this road before. In 2006, they were sued by content owners over copyright infringement with some remote digital video recorders. However, the cable company prevailed in 2009.
Cablevision and Time Warner will probably argue that their iPad applications are covered by its distribution agreements with content owners. First, the companies will claim they’re limiting subscribers to only watch the content inside their home. Second, the cable companies will claim they are delivering the content signals over their DOCSIS architecture, instead over the Internet.
It will be interesting to see if any other content owners decide to force cable companies to remove their channels from innovative concepts like the iPad streaming apps. One thing is for sure. Expect Cablevision, Time Warner and other network operators to gear up, and start providing access to more channels and video on-demand titles for your viewing pleasure.
