Time Warner Cable, DirecTV Make Pay-TV Content Available Online, Mobile Phones

As recently as six months ago, Big Cable was fighting tooth and nail to blockade the movement of Cable-distributed content online. However, after accepting the reality of a changed market and conjointly announcing plans to make content available online to current subscribers, Time Warner Cable and DirecTV have leaped ahead of Comcast to offer pay-TV content for specific channels online with mobile phone content also in the works.



Time Warner Cable CEO Jeff Bewkes stated that “everything on [Time Warner Cable] television should become available to [customers] on broadband for free.” This would include both computers and mobile phones, and would be available to current subscribers and, potentially, customers paying for particular cable channel content.

So, after fighting to keep cable content offline, why the change of heart now, as opposed to 2 years ago when the potential for this "TV Anywhere" initiative was first feasible?

In a telling remark, DirecTV CEO Chase Carey described the dynamic of changing markets, stating: “in the past, when a company tries to stop or block something from happening, it [has] usually failed.”

Whether or not Time Warner Cable and DirecTV will move ahead with these plans will be answered this summer. However, whether or not the two subscription-TV content providers reacted quickly enough to the changing marketplace might not find an answer for months, or even years, to come.

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