News Corp Forces Time Warner Cable To Remove Their Fox Networks From TWC iPad App [Popular Cable iPad App Now A Little Less Awesome After Fox Networks Threaten Legal Action, Yank All Their Channels From The App]

Posted on TFTS by Kevin Schram on Thursday, 31. March 2011 under: Audio,Visual, PCs, Notebooks, Netbooks & Tablets

Do you remember that awesome iPad app from Time Warner Cable that came out a few weeks ago? It allowed Time Warner Cable customers to watch whatever channels they get on their TV to be streamed to their iPad. Cool, right? Unfortunately, the free ride is over as News Corp (parent company of all the Fox networks) has sent a dreaded cease & desist letter to Time Warner Cable, calling the iPad app a misuse of their content.

Some believe that the cease and desist is just the beginning of the conflict, as a lawyer that Bloomberg spoke too believes that News Corp will file a lawsuit. Such a lawsuit, the lawyer says, will likely result in bickering over how the programming rights’ contract between Time Warner Cable and News corp was worded.

Although Comcast has an iPad app, Time Warner Cable’s was the first to allow you to watch all programming and see all TV listings from the application (although it later stopped working due to high demand). Another cable provider, Cablevision, was said to be close to releasing a similar app for mobile devices, but this threat of legal action from News Corp has to be a chilling effect on any future cable providers.

Time Warner Cable has already started getting the customers involved in “the fight”. They’ve set up a new website called IWantMyTWCableTVApp.com, and it informs consumers about the ongoing disagreement with News Corp. This is nothing new for TWC, as they have done similar PR campaigns with ‘conflicts’, like the disagreement over the pricing of the Big Ten Network, etc.

What do you think about this? Do you think that News Corp needs to loosen up and let their content on the app? Or is Time Warner Cable abusing what was granted to them in the broadcast agreement? Tell us your take in the comments section.