Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know this is no longer news, you probably have seen it somewhere else, however, I just couldn't miss the news in my collection, so bear with me

TV Everywhere Heating Up Dog Days of Summer

08.03.10 | View Full Article at FierceIPTV

August is usually a pretty slow time for news, summer vacations aregetting used up and business plans are getting final revisions beforethe fourth quarter kicks off in October. But the TV Everywhere ecosystemdoesn't always follow the laws of the summer doldrums.

In a nutshell, just like the weather, TV Everywhere is turning up the heat.

Last week, Turner Broadcasting System announced it was going livewith a TV Everywhere play with Verizon FiOS TV, giving Verizon'scustomers access to TBS and TNT content 24 hours after they air onregular TV. And, true to form, it can be accessed either from the TBS TVEverywhere website, the TNT TV Everywhere website, or through Verizon'sown TV Online site. The programming is now available with the help ofboth Adobe Systems Incorporated and FreeWheel.

"We are excited about this deployment and the next iteration ofauthenticated multiscreen content distribution," Andy Heller, TBS vicechairman, said. "It is more imperative than ever that TV Everywheregains traction throughout the industry given the rapid deployment oftablets and the ability of mobile devices to display long-form videodirectly from Web sites."

No doubt.

At last week's The Independent Show in Baltimore, MTV Networks andDiscovery executives predicted that TV Everywhere would fail, unlessoperators delivered more ad revenues to programmers. Complaining thatVOD hadn't delivered on its promise to date, MTV's Joey Molko said: "Theextent to which we can monetize (TV Everywhere) will really drive theextent to which we can embrace it. If we monetize it the exact same wayas linear [TV], I think people will be excited about it. If it remainslike VOD, I don't think people will put a large amount of content outthere."

But content is continuing to roll out. Outdoor Channel just announcedit was using Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK) subsidiary thePlatform'svideo player technology and social network components for itsOutdoorChannel.com website.

"It's another cable programmer starting to open up their library andbring it online," said Marty Roberts, VP of sales and marketing atthePlatform.

thePlatform also revealed that it had juiced up its new mpx Betavideo management system to give content owners more security options andgreater DRM flexibility.

Roberts told me he sees the industry gearing up.

"We're still working with a number of cable operators that arebuilding out video portals with the TV Everywhere aspect," he said. "Wehave a couple of programmers that are actually out in beta now and we'rehearing about a lot of programmers that are kind of waiting for thefirst ones (to go) and then they plan to get engaged throughout thefall.

"We're in the thick of it and its only increasing. So, there's a lotof activity actually going on in the market right now; it's gettingpretty exciting. People have been dabbling with online video for thepast couple of years; now they're getting serious.

My buddy over at FierceCable Jim Barthold, writes that another cablecompany, Charter Communications, (OTC BB: CCMM) is rolling an eight- to10-channel TV Everywhere trial to between 5,000 and 10,000 subscribers.

Ah, hot fun in the summertime.-Jim