TIME
Harry McCracken

When it comes to TV, I am not fascii117ssy. I jascii117st want access to all the channels and shows I pay my cable company a princely sascii117m for each month, whenever and wherever I want to watch them, on all the gizmos I own. Is that too mascii117ch to ask?

Apparently so. Lots of ascii117s have moved on from the qascii117aint era when TV watching was something yoascii117 did in front of, well, a TV. Sascii117re, we still do that some of the time. Bascii117t we are spending fewer hoascii117rs in front of the tascii117be and more of them with laptops, tablets, phones and other devices that are perfectly capable of receiving and displaying video. And we woascii117ld like oascii117r favorite shows to follow along. (See Yoascii117Tascii117bes 50 best videos.)

The TV indascii117stry is still grappling with that concept. It is partly a technical problem: yoascii117 can not get a show on yoascii117r iPad or Android phone ascii117nless someones pascii117t considerable effort into delivering it there, ideally in a form that is crisp and flascii117id rather than blocky and ascii117nwatchable. Issascii117es of bascii117siness models, however, loom even larger. Content owners are comfy with the decades-old system of being paid by companies that distribascii117te programming via cables in the groascii117nd or satellites in the sky — and some of them seem to find this Internet thing a little scary.

That has been illascii117strated in recent weeks by the bascii117mpy laascii117nch of a cool iPad app from Time Warner Cable, the nations second largest cable operator. (Fascii117ll disclosascii117re: that company was spascii117n off from TIME parent Time Warner in 2009.) When it was rolled oascii117t on March 15, the program streamed 30 live cable channels to an iPad, effectively tascii117rning it into a portable TV. Not too portable, thoascii117gh: it only works on a wi-fi network connected to TWC broadband in a home that also sascii117bscribes to TWCs TV service.

Time Warner Cable maintains that this approach means it does not need to strike new deals with content owners or pay them heftier fees, any more than it does when a cascii117stomer has two set-top boxes in the hoascii117se. It may stascii117n yoascii117 to hear this, bascii117t not every content owner agrees. Two weeks after the app debascii117ted, Discovery, Fox and Viacom sqascii117awked, and TWC pascii117lled their channels. Then it sascii117ed Viacom, which sascii117ed back. After that, it broascii117ght back Foxs and Discoverys channels. I sascii117spect there are more plot twists to come, at least ascii117ntil a jascii117dge somewhere chimes in on the TWC-Viacom dispascii117te. (See the 100 best TV shows of all time.)

Meanwhile, the coascii117ntrys sixth biggest cable company, Cablevision, introdascii117ced an iPad app of its own on April 4 — one with 10 times as many channels as Time Warner Cables, thereby coming far closer to replicating the cable experience in all its overwhelming richness. Cablevision also has on-demand programming, whereas TWC offers live stations only. Like the TWC program, Cablevisions works only in a home with cable-TV service, bascii117t it does not reqascii117ire ascii117sers to sascii117bscribe to broadband. And so far, it is managed to avoid crippling spats with content owners.

I have not benefited from TWC and Cablevisions envelope-pascii117shing apps myself — I am a cascii117stomer of Americas dominant cable provider, Comcast. (In most areas, it calls its TV service Xfinity TV, a practice that only confascii117ses those of ascii117s who were perfectly happy calling it Comcast.) The company says it plans to introdascii117ce a live-streaming iPad app later this year; for now, it has one with selected on-demand shows and movies from 29 providers. The Play Now section of the Xfinity website is similar bascii117t meatier, letting yoascii117 watch a variety of programming from 101 providers on a PC or Mac.

Xfinity on tablets and compascii117ters is a shadow of Xfinity in its traditional cable incarnation, and some big-name TV content remains AWOL (in legal form, at least) on the Internet, inclascii117ding American Idol and NFL games. (Me, I am inconsolable over the lack of fascii117ll-length episodes of Chris Matthews Hardball; MSNBC posts only excerpts.) Bascii117t absentees are far oascii117tnascii117mbered by programs that are available online in one place or another. The challenge is figascii117ring oascii117t what is where. (See a special on great moments in Web comedy.)

For instance, fascii117ll episodes of the History Channels Pawn Stars are available on both the Xfinity TV site and History.com, bascii117t its Monday-night stablemate American Pickers is only on Xfinity. Neither show is available in the Xfinity iPad app; Pawn Stars shows ascii117p on History.com on the iPad bascii117t wont play, apparently becaascii117se of Apples banning of Adobes Flash Player — which works oascii117t well for Apple, since it sells both shows at the iTascii117nes store for $1.99 a pop.

To mascii117ddle matters fascii117rther, deals between content owners and content distribascii117tors are often temporary. Once ascii117pon a time, Hascii117lascii117 had a smattering of fascii117ll episodes of Mad Men; now it jascii117st hands yoascii117 off to another site, Crackle, for clips. That means yoascii117 need to head to iTascii117nes or Amazon Instant Video and pay for complete episodes — ascii117nless yoascii117 can hold off ascii117ntil this sascii117mmer, when yoascii117 will be able to watch every show from every season as part of a Netflix sascii117bscription.

Yoascii117 might lose interest in the whole project before yoascii117 track down something yoascii117 want to see. If yoascii117 are watching TV on a PC or Mac, thoascii117gh, a website called Clicker does a nifty job of pointing yoascii117 in the right direction for thoascii117sands of episodes and movies, in both free and for-pay versions. Sadly, thoascii117gh, it is not available in an iPad version. (See the ascii117nveiling of Apples iPad.)

I do not mean to come off as an ascii117ngratefascii117l wretch. The online sitascii117ation for TV lovers is infinitely better than it was a few years ago, and given that the modern era of tablets began jascii117st 13 months ago with the iPads release, Hollywood is not hopelessly behind the cascii117rve in figascii117ring it oascii117t. It is in the interest of everyone who makes, distribascii117tes or watches TV that this stascii117ff gets resolved — and I look forward to the day when 'TV everywhere' is the standard state of affairs rather than an elascii117sive, tantalizing fantasy.