It's early, but programmers are apparently giving Cablevision Systems' (NYSE: CVC) iPad TV offering a little more slack than they gave Time Warner Cable's (NYSE: TWC) streaming iPad app. Of course that could have more to do with the timing of the Cablevision announcement--on a Saturday--than any tacit approval from the content gods once the workweek commences for real.
Cablevision's offering is different enough from Time Warner Cable's that it might be able to slide by angry programmers. While TWC positioned its deal as iPad TV streaming, Cablevision emphasized several times in a news release that it was making the iPad "another television." A small television, no doubt, but as of Sunday afternoon the opportunity had risen to number one among Apple's iPad apps.
While the New York Times reported that "no immediate legal action was threatened" by programmers over the weekend, the biggest hurdle Cablevision may face is that iPad viewers are not counted by Nielsen for ratings and advertising.
For more:
- the New York Times has this story
- and this news release
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