Time Warner Cable Digs In Its Heels

Does Time Warner Cable have the right to provide iPad users with live TV channels? That’s at the center of a dispute between the cable operator and several large media companies, including Scripps Networks, Viacom and Discovery Communications. All three answer that question with an emphatic “no.” The Wall Street Journal reports today that TWC has no intentions of backing down in the dispute.

The newspaper quotes Melinda Witmer, chief programming officer for Time Warner Cable, as saying her company is “well within our rights.” That’s provided that TWC transmits TV channels by sending signals through its cables and its “secure network,” rather than the “open Internet.” With that in mind,  the app is configured to work only when linked to a subscriber’s home Internet connection.

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