ivi TV subs 'surge' during Fox-Cablevision fight; what's next for Internet cable company?

What's a start-up online cable company to do once the brouhaha between a network and a cable company that drove (admittedly small) hordes of subscribers to its doorstep is over? Move on.

Ivi TV, which saw a more than 320 percent increase in subscribers during the Fox-Cablevision battle (Cablevision says it lost about 8,000 subscribers overall), says its "Keep Calm, ivi's On" campaign that it conducted, guerrilla style with teams handing out flyers on New York City streets, is a wrap. But the fight between the two media companies that left some 3 million Cablevision subscribers without Fox programming, including games 1 and 2 of the world series, several NFL football games and a variety of Fox stalwarts like Glee, shows a disregard for consumers, said CEO and founder Todd Weaver.

"At a time when even Wall Street's top analysts signal that the entertainment industry has its future in its own hands, 'big media' backed entities arrogantly and consistently leave consumers in the crossfire while emerging companies like ivi TV drive innovation affording consumers' an attractive to pricey cable TV."

Added ivi TV chairman Ron Erickson, "ivi TV, and America for that matter, have learned that FOX acts reflexively when confronted by the changing demands of the marketplace. Rupert Murdoch is used to throwing his weight around and getting his way, whether it involves special rule changes allowing ownership concentration of media properties or egregious charges for his FOX content over antiquated, legacy cable systems. Let FOX and Murdoch continue to rail against the inevitable. Meanwhile, significant numbers of consumers are signing up for ivi TV and watching broadcast TV live on their computers."

Weaver contends ivi TV, like some 16,000 other companies, such as AT&T's U-Verse, pays the Copyright Office to retransmit over-the-air broadcast stations, as all other cable companies do, in strict compliance with the US Copyright Law.

But, the broadcasters it's retransmitting on the Internet disagree. They're suing to stop ivi TV from streaming their signals on the Internet.

For more:
- see this release

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