• by Wayne Friedman , August 24, 2010

Pushing its own "TV Everywhere" effort, Dish Network has started up DishOnline.com, allowing its traditional satellite programming paying customers to watch TV shows and clips online. 

Some 150,000 movies, TV shows, clips and other content from cable networks -- including Food Network, Discovery Channel, MTV, EPIX, Starz and Encore -- will be offered on the new Web site. The site's search engine allows customers to grab content by title, network, actor or genre.

"DishOnline.com integrates Dish Network's expansive TV programming lineup with the vast amount of online video content, adding another dimension to our 'pay once, take your TV everywhere' product platform," stated Dave Shull, senior vice president of programming for Dish Network.

Other video programming service providers -- cable operators Time Warner and Comcast Corp., the companies that initiated the TV Everywhere concept, as well as Dish competitor, DirecTV -- have pledged similar TV Everywhere-like services.

These efforts encourage existing pay customers to remain traditional TV paying consumers by giving them options to get programming away from traditional TV sets. TV analysts have worried that free, ad-supported TV series currently available online might lure consumers to abandon traditional monthly cable, satellite or telco video programming services.

TV Everywhere efforts have not been glitch-free.

Video programming services say some cable and other TV networks are not fully on board, looking for extra money from video services for TV Everywhere. Also, there is no standard as to the number of TV devices where TV Everywhere should be available. Some companies have had problems in "authenticating" paying customers over a disparate number of digital platforms.

Dish says DishOnline is available to non-Dish Network customers. But those consumers need to buy a monthly subscription. Dish has some 14 million subscribers, the second-largest satellite video programming service next to DirecTV.