Cablevision Systems is now in Viacom's legal crosshairs, as the media giant filed a lawsuit accusing the cable operator of distributing its programming without permission through an iPad app -- one day after Viacom and Time Warner Cable officially suspended their litigation on the same issue.
"We have taken this action to protect our valuable content," Viacom said in a statement. "Over the last few months, we have had limited and unproductive discussions with Cablevision about licensing iPad rights. We remain open to productive discussions, but we cannot wait indefinitely while our networks are being distributed without permission."
Cablevision
said in a statement: "Cablevision's very popular Optimum App for iPad,
which has been available to our customers for nearly three months, falls
within our existing cable television licensing agreements with
programmers -- including Viacom. It is cable television service on the
iPad, which functions as a television, and is delivered securely to our
customers in the home on Cablevision's own proprietary network."
Viacom's suit was filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, the same court that was hearing the TWC-Viacom complaints.
