Call it baby steps, but they’re big baby steps nonetheless. Cablevision has updated its Optimum for iPad app to allow users access to live liner content–albeit a very limited menu of content at the moment—outside their home WiFi network.
The Long Island-based company said users of the app will be able to access news, weather and traffic information from a local (and Cablevision owned) TV station, News 12, which is available in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Connecticut, the Hudson Valley region, on Long Island, New Jersey and in West Chester. It also broadcasts in Spanish in the Bronx and New Jersey.
App users also have access to sports from MSG Varsity Channels, which focuses on high school sports.
Cablevision ruffled feathers when it launched the original version of the app in April 2011 with 300 live channels and 2,000 on-demand titles that could be viewed in a subscriber’s home.
The company should have an easier go of it this time, as it has an ownership stake, or outright ownership, of the content being rolled out today.
Will it roll out new content for consumption outside the home network, content it doesn’t own, in coming months? I’ll bite: Maybe.
