Even as Cablevision Systems (NYSE: CVC) hailed the "strong and positive consumer reaction to the Optimum App for iPad," content owners started their first maneuvers to be removed from the offering.
The New York Post reported that Viacom and a "major movie studio which did not wish to be named" are readying opposition to the application which was unveiled Saturday. Another programmer also pointed to the possibility of "litigation" if the app continues as is.
Cablevision, meanwhile, issued a news release that said 50,000 the app had surpassed 50,000 consumer downloads and quoting Gary Schanman, the MSO's senior vice president of video product management saying the service provider's "objective was nothing short of delivering the full cable television experience to our customers on an iPad in the home."
Cablevision further issued a statement that app is "absolutely consistent with all our existing agreements with programmers" and delivered a "complete rejection" to a suggestion that Discovery Communications may have received special "consideration" to have its content placed on the app. "These are rights that exist in our current agreements," a company source said in an e-mail to FierceCable.
For more:
- the New York Post has this story
- see this news release
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