Starz Beats Rival HBO to 'TV Everywhere'

Written by Steve Donohue

Friday, July 10. 2009 at 10:30 AM EDT Post a comment

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Comcast Corp. (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK) and Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX) struck a deal to add Starz Entertainment to their "TV Everywhere" project, which will allow cable TV subscribers to access programming on the Web for no extra charge.

Thursday's announcement that Starz would join TV Everywhere is noteworthy since it makes the Liberty Media Corp. (NYSE: LMC)-owned channel the first premium cable network to join the technical trial. Top pay channel HBO, which is owned by TV Everywhere partner Time Warner, hasn't yet joined the project.

Although Starz is the first premium network that has been officially signed up for TV Everywhere, HBO will likely join the project eventually. The network has run its own technical trials for distributing premium content online, and currently allows subscribers in Milwaukee to access content on the Web through a product called HBO on Broadband.

Starz says that it will contribute 300 high-definition movies and other original series to TV Everywhere, including films Hancock, National Treasure: Book of Secrets, Pineapple Express, High School Musical 3: Senior Year, No Country for Old Men, and Enchanted.

Time Warner-owned TNT and TBS are the only other cable networks that Comcast and Time Warner have said will join TV Everywhere. Comcast hasn't said whether its own channels -- including E! Entertainment, The Golf Channel, Versus, and G4 -- will be part of the TV Everywhere tests.

Some major programmers may resist supplying programming to TV Everywhere unless they are compensated by Comcast and Time Warner Cable for allowing viewers to access their programming lineups online.

In an interview last month about YES Network charging fees to Web surfers who want to watch live Yankees games online, YES CEO Tracy Dolgin told Contentinople that he believes his network should be compensated.

"I do not believe all content is created equal. And therefore, to give it away free to consumers, I believe is an oversimplification, at least for our product, of the way this should be done," Dolgin said. "For our purpose, we believe subscription is the right way to go, although I understand why Time Warner as a distributor wouldn't feel that way necessarily because it would like us to give it the product for free."

The key to TV Everywhere is an authentication process that verifies that an online user subscribes to the pay TV channels that have joined the project. Comcast said Thursday that it will kick off technical trials with about 5,000 randomly selected subscribers nationwide "in the coming weeks."