By: Jesse Cryderman

TV Everywhere is cool but it’s messy...really messy. Home media gateways promised to aggregate web and pay content under one roof, but this hasn't really happened. The many content and delivery companies operating in the video landscape cannot agree on equitable licensing and distribution rates, and this has led to a fractured universe with ever-changing rates and rules. Mobile devices can be linked up with many service provider content offerings, but this usually requires a time consuming process of authentication codes and manual data entry.

Everywhere and nowhere

Pulling everything under one roof and making it available on multiple screens is a tough nut to crack, but essential to winning in video. There are many challenges inherent to TV Everywhere that must be addressed before it’s truly ready for primetime.

Adding web-based and network-based content to a holistic video experience usually requires multiple log-ins and passwords and can precipitate subscription fatigue. Then, to view content on multiple devices, a laborious process of manual authentication must take place. This authentication process usually can only occur in the home network of the account holder. In other words, no changes can be made away from home if the mobile app updates. This is hardly an "everywhere" experience.

Then there are the apps themselves, which are not delivering a customer experience that wins awards. Just take a look at ratings on the Google Play store. In many of these apps, functions that should work simply don't. One angry user of the AT&T U-Verse App for Android wrote, “#1 Whackest App....EVER!!! On demand feature absolutely does NOT work.” Another commented, “New update constantly tells me I'm out of network which I'm not.” Comments on the Verizon FiOS Mobile app for Android are equally bad. “Video lags and freezes after a minute of streaming, wrote one user. “Audio continues playing for a little but video stops. This app is useless in its current state.”

Then there is the ever-present asterisk routinely tacked on to “everywhere.” Different types of pay content have different parameters governing viewing and location. Some content is available on mobile devices, but only within the home network. Other content is available in the home network, but only when the home network is on-contract with the channel/network. For example, AT&T U-verse customers can watch 136 live channels on mobile devices through the U-Verse App in their home, but only 44 live channels on the go. It’s the same story with Verizon FiOS, and Comcast’s Xfinity TV Go only works over Wi-Fi. Comcast also cautions users that “not all programming and services are available in all areas,” and some broadcasts are subject to blackouts.

The situation is no better in Europe. KPN just launched a TV Everywhere pilot program, which allows customers to view streaming video over LTE without impacting the data allowance. However, none of the popular local Dutch channels are available for viewing.

In actual practice, there is more TV Nowhere than TV Everywhere. This must change.