Time Warner is now simulcasting cable news channels CNN & HLN online to customers of Comcast, Dish Network, AT&T, Verizon and other providers. However, don’t be confused if you’re a Time Warner Cable subscriber and can’t get the online channels. Time Warner and Time Warner Cable are not seeing eye-to-eye on this one, and although the name would imply they are the same company Time Warner Cable was spun off to shareholders in 2009.
The online broadcasts from Time Warner can be watched on PCs, iPads, iPhones, and additional mobile devices in the future. But unlike much web-delivered content, the commercials will be identical to those running on the television broadcasts.
Why expand TV programming to mobile and remote devices away from your television? Cable networks are seeing an increase in customers canceling their cable TV subscriptions and going with internet-based solutions, what the industry calls “cord cutting.” The expansion of traditional cable-based subscriptions to web-delivered content is natural, and necessary evolution.
According to Andy Heller, vice chairman of Time Warner, “If we don’t give consumers those options, you run the risk of seeing the potential for cord cutting.” (via The Wall Street Journal)
