Time Warner Cable and Viacom have finally come to an agreement and ended the dispute that has been ongoing for over a year. It started back in April last year when TWCable TV started to receive cease and desist orders from various TV networks over its TWCable TV app. Viacom was the most vocal and it led to TW Cable having to remove lots of channels from the app. Time Warner Cable filed a request for declaratory judgement and a year later appear to have resolved the dispute. We have heard very little since then but subscribers have still missed out on the channels that were removed.

Viacom and Time Warner Cable have agreed to resolve their pending litigations.  All of Viacom’s programming will now be available to Time Warner Cable subscribers for in-home viewing via internet protocol-enabled devices such as iPads and Time Warner Cable will continue to carry Viacom’s Country Music Television (CMT) programming.  In reaching the settlement agreement, Time Warner Cable and Viacom were also able to resolve other unrelated business matters to their mutual satisfaction.  Neither side is conceding its original legal position or will have further comment.

Source: Viacom Blog

Time Warner has just updated its TWC TV app and it is now fully compatible with the iPhone and iPod touch. Since its launch back in March 2011, it has been an iPad only app, but not any longer. If you are a Time Warner Cable subscriber, you can now watch live TV, manage your DVR and change channels on your set-top box on your iPhone and iPod touch.

If you are a Time Warner Cable video subscriber, the FREE TWC TV app turns your iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch into another TV screen and lets you watch selected live cable channels while in your home, through your wireless home network. Watch Bravo from your bedroom, take Food Network with you to the kitchen or catch up on CNBC news from the breakfast table.

• Interactive program guide (IPG) – up to 7 days of listings. View detailed show descriptions including box art. Option to display “HD only” or “favorites only” by creating a favorite channel list.
• Search – search for programming by title or episode name and filter results by genre
• Set-top box tuning – tap on a network logo or “watch on TV” button within the program description to tune compatible set-top boxes directly to the channel
• DVR management – schedule one-time and series recordings on compatible DVRs directly from the IPG. Tap on the “DVR” button to see a list of all upcoming recordings and make changes or cancel recordings

Time Warner Cable has had to remove channels from its iPad application, TWCable TV with immediate effect. We already heard that this may be happening but Time Warner has now confirmed this with a company statement. The networks that seem to have taken umbrage with Time Warner are Discovery Communications, Fox Cable and Viacom. This means the next time you fire up your TWCable TV application on your iPad, you will be missing Animal Planet, Discovery, TLC, FX, National Geographic, BET, CMT, Comedy, MTV, Nickelodeon, Spike and VH1.

Unfortunately, the owners of those channels don't yet share our vision for making it easy for consumers to view the content they've already paid for on different screens within the home. We would rather use our technical resources to distribute the channels of programmers who agree that their content should be seen on any screen inside your home, while we pursue legal solutions that would let us continue deploying this Application.

Just as Amazon is facing resistance in letting customers stream their own music, this once again shows the wide gap between new technology and old media. Time Warner is clearly very unhappy about the situation and have set up a dedicated site to provide up to date information on any future developments.

[Thanks Anthony for the tip!]

[Time Warner Cable]

According to Times Online, It now seems as if Sony, Warner, Universal and EMI are putting the finishing touches on their new album format, CMX, and are ready to do battle against Apple's rumored "Cocktail" enhanced album format.

It was just last month we reported about Cocktail, which would feature new interactive booklets, sleeve notes and other features alongside music downloads in an attempt to lure consumers into making more full album purchases. Now, while it looks like "Cocktail" does exist, it seems that none of the record labels had any hand in creating it. According to this story, record labels first approached Apple 18 months ago to see if they wanted in on this new CMX format and Apple politely refused. Apple then created "Cocktail" in order to compete with Sony, Warner, Universal and EMI.

One senior record label insider said: “Apple at first told us that they were not interested, but now they have decided to do their own, in case ours catches on.

While most of us here at TiPb have no major quarrels purchasing our music digitally, there are a lot of people out there who feel when purchasing digital albums over the internet you are not getting the full album experience. Would this new format make purchasing digital albums any less painful for you? And would you rather go with Apple's "Cocktail" or the music industry's CMX?