NBCU Leads TV Everywhere Efforts Among U.S. Networks

EL SEGUNDO: According to a new report from the TV Intelligence Service at IHS, NBCUniversal leads the U.S. TV Everywhere market in providing access to television content on multiple screens, while Epix and HBO support the effort on more second-screen devices than any other premium or basic cable network.

NBCU provides TV Everywhere services for 15 of its 18 channels, which is 83 percent of the studio's portfolio of cable and broadcast networks to pay-TV subscribers willing to authenticate on second-screen devices. Epix and HBO were credited as both being very willing to embrace new technologies and offering significant amounts of content via their apps and portals. HBO, Cinemax and BTN2Go are the only three networks to have TV Everywhere authentication agreements with all major U.S. pay-TV operators. Showtime is the only premium network offering linear streaming through TV Everywhere. Starz and Encore were the latest entrants to the TV Everywhere market, and are still missing authentication deals with Comcast and DISH Network.

The one entity so far that is the hold-out among major channel groups, not providing any TV Everywhere content, is Discovery Communications. That is expected to change, however, as Discovery is planning to jump into the fray in the near- to mid-term.

“TV Everywhere has been developed as a collective strategy by both pay-TV operators and TV content owners to enhance the traditional linear TV proposition, so that secondary screens like tablets and smartphones can be used to view TV content in addition to the primary screen,” said Erik Brannon, analyst for U.S. cable networks at IHS. “And in spite of the differences in strategy, all TVE products have one thing in common: They allow for current pay-TV video subscribers to authenticate and consume on secondary screens a significant amount of content that they purchase as part of their normal pay-TV video subscriptions.”