Time Warner Cable Inc. is taking Viacom Inc. to court in a case that exposes a schism in the cable TV industry over who has licensing rights to show television programs over Internet-connected gadgets such as the iPad tablet computer.
Time Warner Cable argues that it is allowed under its existing contract to show Viacom’s content in consumers’ homes regardless of the type of device they view it on. Viacom disagrees and wants to be able to charge more money for the capability.
The fight centers on an “app” that Time Warner Cable launched last month that streams live television to Apple Inc.’s iPad tablet, but it has broader implications as the industry tries to sort out who’s owed what when content is viewed in the home on screens other than the television set.
The rise of smartphones and tablets, combined with ubiquitous high-speed Internet connections, is giving people new ways of watching TV that don’t involve their actual televisions. Figuring out licensing rights for content shown on the new gadgets is new terrain.
Time Warner Cable filed its case against Viacom on Thursday in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
Time Warner Cable has been embroiled in controversy since releasing the app. It was forced to drop a dozen cable channels after three big programmers — Viacom, Discovery Communications Inc. and News Corp.’s Fox Cable Networks — complained that the companies’ existing license agreements didn’t cover distributing the content to the iPad.
Time Warner Cable’s app only works for people who pay for the company’s video and Internet service and are using the iPad in their homes, while connected to the company’s modem through a Wi-Fi router. The company is asking for a “declaratory judgment” — a ruling that Time Warner is within its rights under the current agreement to show the programming that it has licensed to customers regardless of the type of screen it’s viewed on in their homes.
Ron Cicero and Bo Clancey Launch Production House 34North
Executive producers Ron Cicero and Bo Clancey have teamed to launch 34North. The shop opens with a roster which includes accomplished directors Jan Wentz, Ben Nakamura Whitehouse, David Edwards and Mario Feil, as well as such up-and-coming filmmakers as Glenn Stewart and Chris Fowles. Nakamura Whitehouse, Edwards, Feil and Fowles come over from CoMPANY Films, the production company for which Cicero served as an EP for the past nearly five years. Director Wentz had most recently been with production house Skunk while Stewart now gains his first U.S. representation. EP Clancey was freelance producing prior to the formation of 34North. He and Cicero have known each other for some 25 years, recently reconnecting on a job directed by Fowles. Cicero said that he and Clancey “want to keep a highly focused roster where talent management can be one on one--where we all share in the directors’ success together.” Clancey also brings an agency pedigree to the new venture. “I started at Campbell Ewald in accounts, no less,” said Clancey. “I saw firsthand how much work agencies put in before we even see a script. You have to respect that investment. These agency experiences really shaped my approach to production--it’s about empathy, listening between the lines, and ultimately making the process seamless.” 34North represents a meeting point--both literally and creatively. Named after the latitude of Malibu, Calif., where the idea for the company was born, it also embraces the power of storytelling. “34North118West was the first GPS-enabled narrative,” Cicero explained. “That blend of art and technology, to captivate an audience, mirrors what we do here--create compelling work, with talented people, harnessing state-of-the-art... Read More