TV EVERYWHERE

First, a definition for a concept many have never even heard of: TV Everywhere. It’s the TV industry’s counter to Netflix, and allows cable subscribers to get to their channels online through cable-company apps and ones from networks — HBO Go and WatchESPN are popular examples.

But the grand vision for TV Everywhere was never fully realized, for several reasons. Signing in to the apps, on phones and tablets, computers or streaming gadgets like Roku, could be clunky and there were roadblocks in gaining the digital rights needed to stream networks outside customers’ homes.

Comcast, by limiting access to NBC’s online Olympics feeds to people who subscribed to cable or satellite TV, tried to promote TV Everywhere while protecting its multi-billion dollar investment in the Olympics, said Joel Espelien, a senior analyst for video research firm The Diffusion Group. “If they threw open the doors and made the Olympics free to the web, it would have destroyed TV Everywhere,” Espelien said. Of course, that made it more difficult for people who don’t subscribe to cable to enjoy the full scope of the Olympics.