“Time Warner Cable on Thursday abruptly removed several channels from its app that replicates the TV viewing experience on an iPad,” Brian Stelter reports for The New York Times.
“The cable company withdrew the channels, including MTV and FX, after receiving complaints from three major media companies, Viacom, Discovery Communications and the News Corporation,” Stelter reports. “The companies have claimed that the iPad app is a contract violation — in part because they want cable companies like Time Warner Cable to pay them more for the privilege to stream their channels to portable devices.”
Stelter reports, “Time Warner Cable reaffirmed on Thursday that it believed it had ‘every right to carry the programming on our iPad app.’ It said in a statement: ‘But, for the time being, we have decided to focus our iPad efforts on those enlightened programmers who understand the benefit and importance of allowing our subscribers — and their viewers — to watch their programming on any screen in their homes. In the meantime, we will pursue all of our legal rights against the programmers who don’t share our vision.'”
Read more in the full article here.
So, if you have a long enough coax cable, you can drag battery-powered (or even regular corded) TVs around your house and accomplish the exact same thing (but, of course, you’ll have all of the channels for which you’re *ahem* already paying). That’s legal. But, using your iPad as a wireless TV to watch a handful of channels (for which, again, you’re already paying) in your own house is illegal? Some of these media companies are batshit insane. Why they seem to hate their customers is beyond us.
More info here: http://iwantmytwcabletvapp.com/