Time Warner Cable, Viacom Pause Fight

Viacom and Time Warner Cable have put their legal fight over beaming live TV channels to Apple iPads on pause, amid a broader battle between media companies and cable operators over the rights to distribute TV shows and movies on the Internet and on mobile devices.

The détente in litigation comes as the two sides attempt to negotiate a resolution in their dispute over whether Time Warner Cable has the right to put Viacom channels, including MTV and Comedy Central, on new devices. Both the media companies that own TV networks and cable operators that distribute them are rushing to adapt to the rise of Internet video as the popularity of Internet-video providers like Netflix Inc. grows. But many media companies have balked at giving their content to distributors without additional payments, slowing most efforts to make cable programming available online -- and opening the business to competitors. Time Warner Cable and Viacom filed dueling federal lawsuits against each other in April, just weeks after Time Warner Cable introduced an application that let its subscribers watch live TV from dozens of channels -- including Viacom channels like MTV and Comedy Central -- on iPads, as long as they remained within the subscriber's home.