Charter Communications launched its first mobile TV streaming app on Tuesday, offering a lineup of more than 100 live TV channels in the home, though the plan is to eventually allow authenticated customers to access live TV streams while they are on the go as well, Charter CEO Tom Rutledge said during Charter’s third quarter earnings call.
Rutledge said the MSO anticipates that the new Charter TV app, offered first on Apple devices and coming later to the Android platform, will eventually add video-on-demand content to the mix and offer out-of-home access. He likened the initial app to a managed, IPTV cable system.
But, in response later to an analyst's question about the evolution of out-of-home rights, Rutledge said Charter's "TV app is the beginning of a lot of things. It may ultimately be monetizable in ways that are different than we currently envision it."
And how Charter makes money on it will depend on how its mobile distribution rights with programmers evolve.
