In an effort to try to stem the tide of people cutting ties with cable and satellite providers to watch TV programming online, Time Warner will tonight start heavily promoting TV Everywhere — a long in development system that would basically allow cable subscribers to watch everything they do at home on their computers and mobile devices — on TBS and TNT, according to a report by the New York Times’ Brian Stelter.
The concept calls for episodes of television shows to be streamed online free — but only for people who already have a cable subscription. In the making for the better part of two years, TV Everywhere is now being introduced, and Turner wants subscribers to know. The ad campaign “is to educate viewers about the value they can unlock,” said Steve Koonin, the president of Turner Entertainment Networks.
“Consumers have bought tens of millions of iPhones and iPads,” Mr. Koonin said in an interview last week. “Our vision is that TV Everywhere kind of becomes the consumer-enabling technology that allows them to unlock the potential of those devices.”
The ad campaign encourages people to download TBS and TNT apps on their phones and tablets to start watching television episodes online and on demand. The apps require users to log in — or, in industry parlance, authenticate — to confirm that they are paying subscribers to a participating cable or satellite company.
The log-in process has taken a long time to put in place, but most of the major companies are now participating, including DirecTV, Dish Network, Comcast, Cablevision, Cox, Verizon FiOS, and AT&T U-verse.
The thing that’s long made TV Everywhere a potential gamechanger is its ability to allow users to switch channels seamlessly, just like people can do when flipping channels at home. If that pans out, TV Everywhere be huge and more even more people will flock to the web to consume programming.
Still, at least your old tube will still be good for some things…