Cable operators: Best and worst iPad apps

BEST: Cablevision. Sometimes second is best. Cablevision (NYSE: CVC) announced its iPad application, Optimum, in April, about a month after Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) launched an iPad app that allowed subscribers to stream 73 channels across their device. Like TWC, Cablevision is offering live and on-demand content streaming to its 3.6 million subscribers via its Optimum app for iPad. Its edge is that Cablevision subscribers, for the moment, can access all of the channels and programs on their tablet that they can see on their television--as long as they're in their own home. That's upwards of 300 channels, depending on one's subscription.

However, it appears that the quality of a provider's streaming app could be directly tied to the size or number of lawsuits filed against it. Like most providers streaming television programs, Cablevision almost immediately ran into trouble with Viacom (NYSE: VIA) over distribution rights to the content provider's programming. Litigation is ongoing, but Cablevision hasn't yet pulled channels off of its app. As of April, some 50,000 Cablevision subscribers had downloaded the company's iPad app.

Courtesy Cablevision Systems Corp.

WORST: Time Warner Cable. In March, TWC released a television app for the Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) iPad. Usable only over a TWC subscriber's home network, the app allows viewers to stream up to 73 channels from the Time Warner Cable lineup. The current version of the iPad app is somewhat bare-bones, with channel listings, a view of the last programs watched, and viewing controls.

The latest update on July 7 provided DVR programming features, new settings, expanded listings and over 100 channels streaming. However, it also inserted a controversial feature that detects "jailbroken" devices--devices that are not locked into a mobile contract--and prevents them from accessing the application. (One wonders who convinced them to add that.)

Time Warner Cable has been tied up in litigation with Viacom since March over what programs it's allowed to retransmit on the OTT application. That means you may want your MTV (did I just date myself?) but you can't get it--until the two sides work things out.

Image source: Time Warner Cable