Turner Broadcasting
System has launched onlinevideo
services with Verizon
Communications’ FiOS TV, offering
access to full episodes of
TNT and TBS shows within 24
hours of airing on TV.
FiOS TV subscribers can access
Turner’s online programming directly
on the “TV Everywhere” sites
for TBS (tbs.com/tveverywhere)
and TNT (tnt.tv/tveverywhere),
logging in using a previously registered
user name and password.
If customers log on through the
Verizon FiOS TV Online site, they
are redirected to Turner’s respective
network sites.
The launch is another step
ahead in the industry’s march
toward TV Everywhere, which
aims to give subscribers more
reasons to pay for television service
by bundling in access to extra
material on-demand online or
on mobile devices. Comcast was
the first out of the gate with Fancast
Xfinity TV, which debuted in
December of 2009, while providers
including Time Warner Cable,
Charter Communications, Cox
Communications, DirecTV, Dish
Network and AT&T are in varying
stages of developing their own
“TV Everywhere” services.
Shows currently in rotation
on the service include TNT’s
The Closer, Rizzoli & Isles and
Leverage and TBS’s Lopez Tonight,
House of Payne and Meet
the Browns. Turner expects to
launch additional networks in
the next few months.
Adobe Systems is providing
the authentication capability and
media-streaming via its Flash platform.
The programmer is using adserving
network FreeWheel, which
Turner said will “complement”
Nielsen measurement of C3 video
(aggregating linear, online and
video-on-demand ad impressions)
beginning in September.
“We are excited about this deployment
and the next iteration
of authenticated multi-screen
content distribution,” TBS vice
chairman Andy Heller said in
a statement. “It is more imperative
than ever that TV Everywhere
gains traction throughout
the industry given the rapid deployment
of tablets and the ability
of mobile devices to display
long-form video directly from
Web sites.”
Advertisers currently featured
on TBS’s TV Everywhere service
include Unilever’s Dove soap,
while TNT’s iteration is running
ads for Mars’ M&Ms.
Turner’s TV Everywhere services
also provide options to create
a playlist; view content in fullscreen
mode; and watch in “HD.”
The bit rate of the video isn’t apparent.
Verizon has said it is working
to add a number of content providers
to its TV Everywhere service,
including Fox News, CBS,
MTV Networks, Hallmark Channel,
Smithsonian Channel and
the Tennis Channel.
FiOS TV Online already offers
the TV Everywhere services offered
by HBO and Epix, a joint venture
of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Paramount
Pictures and Lionsgate.
