NBC, TNT and TBS Bring Full-Length TV Episodes to iOS Devices

[tomccabe]

I'd been hoping to get into Community but I probably never will. More than 5 back episodes might have turned me into a regular viewer. Media companies still just refuse to get it.

 

[Peace]

I dont understand why TNT and TBS don't do live broadcasts of their TV shows. They are owned by Time-Warner who own CNN and CNN now has a live TV app.

Me thinks there are battles between Time-Warner and Comcast.

 

[fhall1]

????
Have you heard of Folders....its not rocket science. Title it "TV Apps" done.

Sorry....have to agree with Simmias....I want one "TV App" and then be able to pick the provider content from within it....not 20 different apps.

 

[stickyd8]

No TIme Warner

How is it Turner Broadcasting is a subsidiary of Time Warner, but Time Warner Cable is excluded from using this app. Damn you Time Warner. Just when I think you can't suck any more, you totally redeem yourself with crap like this. Figure it out!

 

[soco]

What a TERRIBLE analogy. What's ridiculous is your above post. The argument makes no sense...If NBC or your content providers wanted you to have it, they would have worked that out. In what way does that statment apply to ANYTHING.

You seem pretty angry. I'm surprised you're so passionate about this. To rebut, I'll just say that my argument makes sense to me because plainly speaking the content belongs to NBC. They chose to not agree with Canadian providers to allow them access.

Now, they can be upset. They can be up in arms and get all sassy about it, but in the end it's not a justification to pirate the content or demand anything. They pay for NBC through their cable provider and that's all they pay for. They don't pay extra charges for access on the internet or through apps or anything. So why freak out when others get it and you don't? They're not raising their prices so that Americans can access is and Canadians have to pay some of the price for it. Is that really that "ridiculous"?

Canadians get NBC just like we do. I can totally relate to his anger or disappointment. If it was reversed, and you wanted NBC on ur iPad, and only Canadians had access to it, you would be pissed...And you would have every right to be! Geeze..Some people are just crazy around here. There was absolutely no need for a negative post like that.

More of the same here. In simplest terms, it's like I run a candy store. Two kids come in and buy lollipops. I hand one each to the kids since they paid but I give one of them a Snozzberry flavored piece of wallpaper. Am I mean? Maybe. Am I within my rights? Damn right I am.

The snozzberries... they taste like snozzberries...

 

[Chewbaca]

Oh awesome!

I've just encoded all my DvDs for the iPad but I guess this'll save me the bother of doing that in the future.

 

[Max E Verde]

For the TBS app, AirPlay video works great on my iPad 1 and iPhone 4 running iOS 5 beta 7 connected to my Apple TV running 4.3.

I do have to go to the multitasking UI to enable AirPlay.

Hopefully they won't "fix" this when iOS 5 is released, I always wanted to watch Conan on my Apple TV the next day and for now I can.

Edit: After some more playing around it seems only certain episodes can be played with AirPlay. I really don't see why these TV networks can't just make their Apps AirPlay compatable. I'm sure the reason it worked for me is because of how Apple changed the rules for how Apps work by default with AirPlay video, and thus a bug running an iOS 4 app with an iOS 5 beta.

 

[marksman]

The American companies block their signals via internet (Hulu, CBS.com to name a few) to Canada sighting they don't have copyright with the distribution companies to do this. Then I have to go to piratebay or eztv to get what others can get legally in the US. Want to stop piracy, give us the ability to do what our American brethren can do legally.

They do not have the rights to provide that programming to canada. Their deals with the content provider is for the United States. The content providers can make deals to provide their shows to various countries.

If there is some show you want to see in your country, I suggest you talk to your local broadcasters and channels and ask them to see if they can acquire the show. Unfortunately Canada has laws that require them to broadcast Canadian products like them or not... so it is probably not that easy.

The point being is TNT does not have the ability to distribute The Closer except in the United States. If you want to see The Closer in Canada, then a channel that broadcasts in Canada needs to pay to air The Closer in Canada.

So no matter how you slice it is stealing. There are overseas shows I would like to watch here in the US, but if someone does not broadcast them here, I have no legal right to see them.

 

[samcraig]

The American companies block their signals via internet (Hulu, CBS.com to name a few) to Canada sighting they don't have copyright with the distribution companies to do this. Then I have to go to piratebay or eztv to get what others can get legally in the US. Want to stop piracy, give us the ability to do what our American brethren can do legally.

The problem is that if I want to watch Great British Railway Journeys I have to torrent it because I happen to reside in a country that isn't the UK.

Ah. I see the real problem. It's your feeling of entitlement. Got it.

 

[milo]

Heck, does it even output to TV over the cable (unlike hulu)?

Sadly, looks like it doesn't.

Hard to get too excited about any of these apps that don't output to an external screen. Looks like they added the feature back into Hulu again, I'll have to give it a try.

And Apple definitely needs to do whatever is necessary to get these networks with online streaming onto the apple TV.

 

[JAT]

Sadly, looks like it doesn't.

Hard to get too excited about any of these apps that don't output to an external screen. Looks like they added the feature back into Hulu again, I'll have to give it a try.

What do you mean? I output whatever I want to my 2nd screen, aka TV. The OS can control the screens, not just apps. It is true that Hulu finally upgraded (as of sometime in the last month) to include Flash's new ability (as of early 2011) to be fullscreen on a 2nd screen while working in another app. Previous to this last week, I would simply zoom a window as large as possible on the TV.

 

[wovel]

They do not have the rights to provide that programming to canada. Their deals with the content provider is for the United States. The content providers can make deals to provide their shows to various countries.

If there is some show you want to see in your country, I suggest you talk to your local broadcasters and channels and ask them to see if they can acquire the show. Unfortunately Canada has laws that require them to broadcast Canadian products like them or not... so it is probably not that easy.

The point being is TNT does not have the ability to distribute The Closer except in the United States. If you want to see The Closer in Canada, then a channel that broadcasts in Canada needs to pay to air The Closer in Canada.

So no matter how you slice it is stealing. There are overseas shows I would like to watch here in the US, but if someone does not broadcast them here, I have no legal right to see them.

I suppose if they wanted to, the rights holder of the closer could distribute the show over the Internet into countries where there is no one broadcasting the show. Of course then, the producers have to get into distribution, sell advertising, etc..

They can't just allow TNT to do it. TNT's advertisers are paying to Advertise in the US and I doubt they would want to start working on targeting ads to Canada. Well Canada might be ok, but anything beyond that would be odd.

 

[APlotdevice]

This kind of stuff is why AppleTV needs an App Store. As much as people like watching stuff on their iPad, they overwhelmingly prefer the watching on the largest screen in their house.

That would be a nice idea. But in this case they would be in for a rough fight with the cable and satellite providers, who will do everything in their power to ensure Apple isn't allowed to compete with them in the home theater.

 

[aafuss1]

NBC's app has been pulled from the app store in Australia as well due to the videos being restricted to those in the U.S.

I was able to download it before it got pulled.

Mainly watched the SNL digital shorts through it-but can watch these shorts on Hulu instead.

 

[ladytonya]

I read iSO deviceS and got excited, guess not. I will never understand why they don't give us these apps for the iPhone. It should be my business if I want to watch tv on my tiny screen, not the app developers.