Cablevision Apple iPhone app launches with 300 channels, VOD

Cablevision (NYSE:CVC), which in April rolled out its Optimum App that gave subscribers with an Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPad access to 300 live linear TV channels, today launched a new Optimum App for iPhone and iPod touch devices.

optimum

Optimum for iPhone allows a user to watch TV or manage her DVR.

The free app, available in the Apple App Store, like its iPad predecessor, still chains a user to the home environment, but nonetheless delivers access to more than 300 channels of live TV and thousands of titles of video on demand. In the past four months, the app has been downloaded 200,000 times. With the increased functionality, that number should quickly swell.

The app also lets users access and manage their DVRs, an interactive program guide, and conduct searches. And, here's a bonus, it allows any of the devices to function as a virtual remote control for conventional TVs in the home.

Cablevision uses its own network to deliver programming to customers for viewing on its Optimum App, not the Internet. In fact, Cablevision doesn't require customers to have Internet access to use the Optimum App.

Cablevision, which faced lawsuits after it rolled out its iPad app, contends it has the right to distribute programming over its cable system to in-home iPhones, iPods, iPads and other devices functioning as televisions under its existing distribution agreements with programming providers.

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