Cablevision is facing growing backlash from content owners over its new iPad app for streaming live TV and video on demand.
According to sources familiar with the talks, Viacom, the owner of MTV, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon, is unhappy about its inclusion in the app and has complained to the Long Island cable-TV operator.
Moreover, a major movie studio, which did not wish to be named, told The Post that it did not believe Cablevision had the right to offer its films in the movies-on-demand service that can also be accessed via the new app.
Like Time Warner Cable, which also launched a TV streaming app, Cablevision is at odds with some content owners who believe that distribution of shows and movies through an app requires new rights agreements.
One programmer said there is talk of a potential “litigation group,” although none of the parties contacted by The Post had taken any legal action or lodged formal complaints.
One insider said Viacom was still in talks with Cablevision with hopes of bypassing legal action.
Cablevision would not comment on whether it had received complaints but reiterated that its app was “absolutely consistent with all of our existing agreements with programmers.”
Time Warner Cable removed some channels from its app amid protests from Discovery Communications, Viacom, Scripps Networks Interactive and News Corp., which owns The Post.