SEVERAL cable TV companies are in talks to give their subscribers online access to shows that have been available only on TV until now.
A pilot program could be ready as early as this summer, according to reports.
It will be the first time that programs like “Big Love” and “Dexter” will be on the Web.
The hitch is that you will have to be a cable subscriber already to get them.
Through an initiative currently going by the name TV Everywhere, cable and satellite operators would require their subscribers to type in identifying information to Web sites like HBO.com or Time Warner’s Roadrunner.com, before being allowed to watch show episodes.
Over the past year, Time Warner Cable has been testing the process in Wisconsin with HBO, giving its subscribers online access to over 600 titles a month. Sources say that the success of this trial will lead to other test runs with different networks, operators and markets later this year.
“Time Warner supports providing consumers an easy way to access TV shows online, whenever and wherever they want, if they subscribe to a multi-channel video service,” says company spokesperson Keith Cocozza.
Until now, most cable channels like HBO have only been posting clips of their series online, instead of full episodes.
That was the only way to avoid angering the cable operators, which pay large fees for exclusive rights to carry programming.
The operators would likely withdraw their funding – amounting to about 50 percent of the channels’ revenue – if full episodes were suddenly posted online for free as broadcast channels have done on their own Web sites or on Hulu.com or TV.com.
Cable networks said to be in talks to participate in TV Everywhere include HBO, MTV, Discovery Channel, AMC, CNN, TBS and the Food Network.