• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, October 23, 2014

Some consumers feel tethered to their pay TV providers in accessing traditional networks over new digital services.  That’s why TV Everywhere platforms may not be gaining big traction, according to some studies.

But another report elicits a picture of somewhat happier pay TV consumers. Adobe says the amount of online TV authenticated video starts soared 388% in the second quarter versus a year earlier.  The improvement came specifically from the Winter Olympics, March Madness and World Cup events.

There may also be some cracks in the TV Everywhere movement among specific companies -- like Time Warner.  Maybe you can call it covering their ass.

Time Warner already has the popular HBO Go authenticated TV Everywhere app going strong. Then last week HBO announced it would also start a ground-breaking stand-alone subscription video-on-demand service.

TV Everywhere would seem to have a head start, of course. Adobe looked at 250 U.S. pay TV service providers and estimated that 105 channels now have more than 300 online sites and apps.

Still the future looks compelling: For the first time, you will be able to get HBO without having to first buy a monthly pay TV service.

What does that signal to HBO’s pay TV partners, like Comcast, DirecTV and Charter? And what does it mean for Time Warner’s still biggest growth area: affiliate fees for its cable networks, specifically HBO?

Seemingly to deflect some of the expected criticism, Time Warner is initially positioning the stand-alone HBO service mostly to Millennials.

But in a recent report,  Michael Nathanson of MoffettNathanson Research said the stand-alone service combined with Time Warner’s continued selling of programming to existing SVOD services like Netflix and Amazon Prime signals one thing:  “Time Warner’s support for the TV Everywhere initiative has waned.”

Note that Jeff Bewkes, CEO/chairman of Time Warner, has been one of the main proponents of TV Everywhere.

Got a better picture of the marketplace now?