TWC Selects "TV Everywhere" Leader

Connecticut-based Time Warner Cable revealed that Andrew Heller will lead the company's "TV Everywhere" initiative, designed to provide cable subscribers with free online TV programming. Heller has been in the content distribution business since the 1980s, working with corporations including Time Warner Cable, HBO, and Turner. Currently serving as Vice Chairman of Turner Broadcasting System (TBS), Heller will additionally coordinate TV Everywhere.

According to AdAge, Heller has been working on TWC's TV Everywhere for many months. He is due to reveal details of the project soon. What role will Heller play? His most important duty is to connect advertisers, distributers, and networks to reach an agreement on TV Everywhere's structure and practices.

"It's important we do this as quickly as we can because there is such disparate treatment of access to commercially produced long-form content as an industry that it's confusing to the consumer, and that's unhealthy," Heller told AdAge. "The sooner we can find technical solutions to make this work and reward our customers for their loyalty, the easier it will be for consumers to understand what we're doing and tell us what else they'd like to see."

Heller suggested that cable subscribers want a new model for enjoying TV content, and that consumers will ultimately determine what works - and what doesn't work - by voting with their wallets.

The initiative's main objective is to preserve the value that customers place on the current cable business model. "It's important we do this as quickly as we can, because there is such disparate treatment of access to commercially produced long-form content as an industry that it's confusing to the consumer, and that's unhealthy."

Rival cable networks have also pledged to participate in TV Everywhere, allowing subscribers to watch TV shows online at no additional cost.