Comcast, TW CEOs offer details on TV Everywhere

Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes and Comcast CEO Brian Roberts announced a few details of their partnership in the "TV Everywhere" initiative at a press conference Wednesday and said the service likely will be widely available some time in the fourth quarter. TV Everywhere aims to give cable subscribers access to network content on any broadband connected device through an authentication process, and Bewkes said it "is an offensive move, not a defensive one." He added that the initiative to make content available on-demand online would substantially increase VOD offerings available on televisions as well.

The two CEOs said the previously announced initial trials of the program would begin in July with 5,000 subscribers across the country. The trials will include programming from the TNT and TBS cable networks to begin, with more content expected to be added as the trials roll out. The content will be available online a few hours after original air time. Bewkes and Roberts also mentioned that their companies would like to see traditional television live-viewing and on-demand metrics brought to the offering for the advertising portion of the revenue model.

Roberts compared skepticism about the model to doubts that were raised when on-demand offerings were launched, and even doubts that confronted Ted Turner when he launched CNN. Bewkes said that if TV Everywhere gets wide support from multichannel video providers, the effort "will surpass user-generated content and will be the biggest thing in Internet video."

Bewkes also noted that VOD rights and Internet delivery have not been secured for many networks yet, and it remains an issue in the offering's eventual nationwide launch. He also admitted the companies are still attempting to optimize the advertising element of TV Everywhere, in tandem with their on-demand offerings for the television. 

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