By Rima Bek

iPad to join computer/TV age

NEW YORK, NY (Hollywood Today) 8/18/10 — Verizon Communication, Inc., demonstrated an iPad application that will let customers watch live television shows and movies, on Wednesday. It will allow Verizon’s FiOS TV service to work outside the living, according to Reuters.

The application, called “What’s Hot,” gives customers the decision to pick and choose a live program they want to view in full screen on the iPad. As the program evolves, viewers may be able to compartmentalize their choices by genres such as sports and news.

Now, Verizon needs to get permission from big content providers like the Walt Disney Company or Time Warner Inc. to extend live television viewing to devices like tablet computers.

“There’s a wide diversity of opinion on how to move the industry forward, so you really have to convince them one by one that this is good for everybody: the consumer, programmer, distributor and the business,” said Shawn Strickland, Verizon’s vice president of consumer strategy and planning.

If approved, Verizon plans to offer the service next year.