In a bit of a family feud, Time Warner-owned cable networks CNN and Cartoon Network have sued cable operator Cablevision Systems over that company’s plans to roll out a network DVR. In the wake of a similar, if not exactly the same, suit filed by four Hollywood studios (including Time Warner) and three broadcast networks, CNN and Cartoon Network filed their complaint last Friday in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, alleging that the centralized DVR function that Cablevision plans to offer is a violation of the copyright laws.
The family feud part: rarely do cable networks, particularly those owned by a company that also owns cable systems (as does Time Warner), sue a cable operator. Moreover, sister company Time Warner Cable is watching the Cablevision DVR experiment closely in the hopes that it might be able to roll out its own version of a networked DVR.
Speaking at a conference in March, John Martin, chief financial officer at Time Warner Cable said, “If over time, this proves legal and if over time this proves to be something that consumers want to do, we have the ability to bring that to them and that’s what I think is sort of exciting and important.”
Cynthia Brumfield at 7:06 PM|Comments(0)
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