Time Warner testing internet-only TV packages


Time Warner is rolling out a beta test in New York City for an Internet service that essentially takes the place of cable TV. The solution will provide a Roku streaming box and allow customers to stream live content via a Time Warner Internet-only package. Engadget speculates while Time Warner is providing a Roku, this should also be possible with Time Warner's iOS app and perhaps a future Apple TV app.

Engadget:

Cottrell confirmed that for customers, using the app has the same features customers have come to expect from TWC TV, so while there's no real DVR support what you can get is up to 300 live TV channels, including local broadcast networks and even premium stuff like HBO and Showtime. Also there's video on-demand access with StartOver for certain programs, but no Pay-Per-View or movie rentals, for now.

This will be something to watch because in my experience live streamed TV doesn't perform comparibly to standard cable TV. Certainly on-demand programming can look great while streaming. In fact, depending on the cable TV channel compression streamed content can be a better experience. Live programming, however, is a different animal with lower latency requirements and potentially higher simultaneous uncached streams.

For me, one example with watching a football game on WatchESPN was not a great experience. I received basically SD-quality picture and as the game progressed into peak evening streaming time it basically became unwatchable. A key point here though is the ESPN service was presumably streamed over the open Internet and a cable company could stream from servers on their own backbone.

Cable TV has dedicated bandwidth to deliver digital content, which is something not available with standard Internet streaming. If net neutrality wasn't such a problem, this could be managed through quality of service to ensure live streaming content has priority. Perhaps cable company's backbones will be sufficient enough to give equal access to all content while delivering quality live content across its own network.