Optimum/Cablevision offers in-house iPad streaming

Seth Weintraub | Apr 2 2011 - 2:10 pm PT

To counter the recent efforts of Time Warner and Comcast who have offered streaming content through the iPad, Optimum online today announced that it would also offer an iPad service. (iTunes link)

The good news is that you can use every channel you get at home, up to 300 channels.

The bad news is that the system is little more than a home Sling box that broadcasts the channels you get in your house over your Wifi. You can’t sign in from outside your house (without setting up a VPN;).

While this is nice for watching TV in and around your own home, it doesn’t compare to the streaming model that the other two cable producers are putting out.

Full press release below:

CABLEVISION’S NEW OPTIMUM APP DELIVERS THE FULL CABLE TELEVISION
EXPERIENCE TO AN iPAD IN THE HOME

Customers Can Enjoy Cable Television Service Including Hundreds Of
Channels, Video On Demand, Enhanced And Searchable Guide Information And
DVR Controls On Their Tablet Device, Which Functions As A Television In
The Home

Available At No Additional Cost To Existing Optimum Cable Television
Customers

BETHPAGE, NY, April 2, 2011 – Cablevision Systems Corp. (NYSE: CVC)
today announced the launch of the Optimum App for iPad, which allows its
cable television customers to experience iO TV digital cable – including
access to hundreds of channels and video on demand (VOD) – on an iPad in
the home. The application delivers the full cable television experience
to the tablet device, and allows the iPad to function as a television.
Like all additional outlets, it is free to existing Optimum cable
television customers.

In addition to approximately 300 live channels and access to VOD, the
Optimum App for iPad integrates enhanced guide information that makes it
easier than ever before for customers to find the content they already
receive as part of their cable television subscription. Programming is
fully searchable, including by genre, and the application includes the
ability to schedule DVR recordings and manage previously-recorded
content.

“This application allows the iPad to function as a television,
delivering the full richness and diversity of our cable television
service to a display device in the home,” said Tom Rutledge,
Cablevision’s chief operating officer. “It gives our customers the
additional flexibility and convenience of watching television throughout
the home, in places where set-top boxes might not be ideal or even
practical, like the kitchen, bathroom or work room. This is the future
of Advanced Digital Cable televisions served with virtual set-top boxes,
and just one of many digital displays we are going to be serving through
a variety of applications,” Mr. Rutledge concluded.

Cablevision uses its secure and proprietary Advanced Digital Cable
television network to deliver cable programming to customers for viewing
on the Optimum App for iPad, and content is not delivered over the
Internet. The application turns the iPad into an additional television,
enabling Cablevision customers to view the same live programming and VOD
content already being delivered to other TVs in the home as part of the
service they have paid for. Cablevision has the right to distribute
programming over its cable system to iPads configured in this way under
its existing distribution agreements with programming providers.
Cablevision has been serving customers with switched digital cable for
more than five years. Advanced Digital Cable allows the company to
switch in multiple digital formats, as its customers continue to buy the
latest display devices. Customers do not need to have Internet access
to use the Optimum App for iPad.

Cablevision plans to deploy additional applications that deliver the
same experience to other tablets and display devices, functioning as
televisions. The company plans to integrate remote control
functionality into the Optimum App for iPad this summer.