MIchelle Clancy ©RapidTVNews | 21-09-2011
After months of promises, streaming is finally coming to the Verizon FiOS app for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.
The free app allows IPTV subscribers access to live TV and both rented and purchased video-on-demand (VOD) content, and gives Verizon parity with cable rivals like Tme Warner Cable and Cablvision, which were two first movers in the iPad streaming game.
To enable the functionality, Verizon is leveraging its TV Everywhere platform, Flex View, which allows FiOS subscribers to port TV content around the home and around devices.
Verizon has been promising iOS streaming for more than a year, but the IPTV provider found itself hamstrung by content rights issues.
With TV Everywhere becoming more and more of an imperative for operators looking to differentiate themselves and add value to their pay-TV service in an era of economic instability, iPad and iPhone streaming apps would seem to be no-brainers. Most pay-TV operators are chasing that dragon, but content owners see potential trouble ahead in the scheme. Both Cablevision and TWC ran afoul of content licensing issues with their iPad apps, because some media companies, like Viacom, saw the tablets as a brand-new delivery method rather than a small TV, even though the apps function within the home zone only. And therefore, they argued, they deserve additional carriage fees for the content.
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