TV Everywhere
Upon its establishment, the TV Everywhere concept received criticism for being difficult for end-users to set up, while media activists have criticized the concept for being a paywall that extends the existing oligarchy of the subscription television industry to the internet, and considering it to be collusion against cord cutters—those who drop cable and satellite entirely in favor of accessing content via terrestrial television, the internet, and subscription video on demand (SVOD) services.
[2][3] In particular, broadcasters and providers have emphasized the use of TV Everywhere services to allow multi-platform access to their content, on devices such as personal computers, smartphones, tablets, digital media players, and video game consoles.
[3] ESPN first introduced a TV Everywhere-like concept with ESPN360, a service which allowed users to stream sports programming from its networks either live or on-demand through a website.
Similar tactics were soon used by several other channels, such as NFL Network (who used the technique to restrict access to its Game Extra service for Thursday Night Football) and Epix (an early pioneer of the concept for the premium cable industry).
David Preschlack, ESPN's executive vice president for affiliate sales and marketing, foresaw a future in the model, believing that access to exclusive content would soon play a greater role in competition between high-speed internet providers.
[4][5][6] In 2009, Time Warner Cable announced an initiative known as TV Everywhere, a set of principles which were "designed to serve as a framework to facilitate deployment of online television content in a way that is consumer friendly, pro-competitive.
"[7] The concept would enable users of their respective cable television services to access live and on-demand online content from channels that they subscribe to by using an account-based authentication system.
[19][20] In December 2013, ABC confirmed that it would impose a similar restriction to Fox for "next day" on-demand episodes beginning on January 6, 2014, with seven-day exclusivity for authenticated users and Hulu Plus subscribers.
[26] In the late-2010's, a number of major media companies began to shift their priorities towards direct-to-consumer, subscription-based streaming services, in order to specifically attract cord cutters and increase their competitiveness with competitors such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video.
[3] Songwriters Guild of America president Rick Carnes praised the TV Everywhere concept and other recent developments for helping to provide easier, legal access to premium content online.
[52] In December 2015, research firm GfK estimated that 53% of the United States' pay television subscribers have used a TV Everywhere service—an increase from 42% in 2012, that overall use had doubled since 2012, and 79% of those surveyed found the login process easy.
[58] There have been instances of users deliberately sharing their TV Everywhere login credentials, or having them sold without their owner's knowledge on the black market, in order to allow others to view programs without subscribing to the channel.
Charter Communications CEO Tom Rutledge, and ESPN's executive vice president for affiliate sales and marketing Justin Connolly, have considered this practice equivalent to piracy.
In December 2017, it was reported that television providers and program distributors had begun to implement measures in order to discourage this practice, including reducing the length of login session, reducing the number of concurrent streams allowed on a single account, and monitoring unusual usage patterns such as large numbers of concurrent streams on a single account—especially those originating from outside of the customer's region, or during major programs.
[59] In August 2019, as part of its latest carriage agreement, it was announced that Charter and Disney would "work together to implement business rules and techniques to address such issues as unauthorized access and password sharing.
