Latest Cable Battle: Beaming Straight to iPad

A feud has erupted between Time Warner and cable networks after the cable provider released an iPad app for 32 live TV channels. Time Warner, which didn’t get permission from the networks, says it is “well within our rights” to transmit to any home device, provided it does so through its own “secure network” and not the “open Internet." Several networks fervently disagree, with one calling the move a “land grab,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

Some agreements between networks and cable providers address “cable television” and not other devices, network executives say. But a Time Warner exec disagreed: “We don't define in our contracts what a viewing device is, because technology has always been evolving,” she said. “I don't know what a TV is anymore.” The battle is part of a larger war over how to provide content in the digital age. Time Warner aims to stay at the forefront as viewing habits change—and it plans to put all its channels on the iPad. (More Time Warner stories.)