Following the lead of its larger rival HBO, Showtime is beginning to broaden access to an Internet service that lets its subscribers stream hundreds of television episodes and feature films.
The service, called Showtime Anytime, was turned on for Verizon FiOS customers on Tuesday, and will be extended to several other cable and satellite distributors later this year. Already available for Comcast and ATT U-verse customers, and now available for the first time on the iPad, it is part of a push toward subscriber-only streaming.
While many networks, including HBO and Showtime, have made some programming available via traditional video-on-demand systems for years, the Internet streaming interfaces are more functional and have a deeper selection of shows and films. HBO made a competing service, HBO Go, broadly available to its subscribers last year, drawing rave reviews and motivating other television networks to try to match it.
Tom Christie, Showtime’s executive vice president of affiliate sales and marketing, acknowledged in an interview that HBO had forged ahead with HBO Go and called it an “excellent product.” But he said HBO’s head start “had no perceptible effect on our business.”
“We took a look at what they did, and we took a look at what else was happening in the space that is frequently called ‘TV Everywhere,’ ” Mr. Christie said. “We took our time to be careful and put together the best product that we could.”
Both networks treat the streaming services as tools to retain subscribers and entice new ones to sign up. The services protect the current relationships between distributors and programmers by requiring viewers to log in with their cable or satellite account.
HBO moved quickly to line up all the major distributors for HBO Go, with two exceptions, Time Warner Cable and Cablevision. Those companies announced last month that they had belatedly reached agreements with the company. (Time Warner Cable officially turned on HBO Go on Tuesday.)
Mr. Christie said the HBO and Showtime strategies differed significantly.
“It appears to us that HBO went out and very quickly got it launched on cable systems; they didn’t have much of a negotiation with cable affiliates,” he said. “But once it has launched all over, it becomes a major sticking point in the negotiations.”
Showtime, instead, has included the new streaming service in negotiations as its previous agreements with distributors have come due for renewal, he said. The Showtime Anytime introduction with Verizon is part of a larger five-year renewal.
HBO declined to comment.
Terry Denson, the vice president of content strategy and acquisition for Verizon, said the renewal would allow out-of-home viewing of Showtime programs on the iPad — a sticking point in some other negotiations between distributors and programmers.
Mr. Denson called out-of-home access an important differentiator for Verizon. Though it may sound clichéd, he said, “if you look around and say, ‘Geez, where can you really do it?’, there’s not a lot of places.”
Comcast was the first to allow its subscribers to stream Showtime content online in late 2010, though only on its own Web site, not on Showtime’s. Mr. Christie said the two companies were now working on an integration.
Mr. Christie said there were several other distribution deals “that will come in for a landing shortly.”
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