With TV Everywhere, viewers no longer need a television.

“(In the past) when you spoke about viewers’ three screens, you meant the TVs in the living room, the kitchen and the bedroom,” Julius Genachowski, the Federal Communications Commission chairman, told the National Association of Broadcasters in 2011. “Now we’re talking about your TV, your computer and your mobile device. … And now there’s a fourth screen busting onto the scene — tablets.”

TV Everywhere is exactly what it says — TV content that’s accessible anywhere, anytime — a service recently launched by BendBroadband and coined by other companies to refer to on-demand content.

But it’s also evolved into the name of the authentication system, created by cable and satellite companies, that viewers use to prove they are paying customers.

Viewers have been watching their favorite TV shows on computers for years, but improving technology now allows them to watch on their tablets and smartphones, too, relaxing the control networks and cable companies traditionally held over content. Viewers also no longer have to rearrange their activities to fit broadcasting schedules.

To recapture customers, cable providers and networks are offering subscribers access to TV on a variety of platforms.

Comcast Corp. and Time Warner Inc. announced the TV Everywhere concept in 2009, and BendBroadband —the Bend cable TV, Internet and telephone company — launched TV Everywhere in February.

By offering TV Everywhere, BendBroadband is attempting to respond to how customers interact with TV programming, said Lance Judd, BendBroadband marketing manager.

“The TV Everywhere model puts the viewer in control of when and where to watch TV,” he said. “In many ways, technologies like (digital video recorders), video on demand and now (TV Everywhere) simply create flexible options for customers to create their own version of prime time … when and where it works for them.”

The ability to watch TV on multiple platforms has profound implications for both industry and consumers, Al Stavitsky, dean of the Reynolds School of Journalism at the University of Nevada, Reno, wrote in an email.

For the industry, he said, it’s another way to reach audiences away from home-bound TV sets. It also helps broadcasters compete with YouTube and apps on mobile devices. However, there are downsides.

“(Broadcasters) lose an element of control and revenue because they are now reliant on intermediaries such as the wireless company or satellite provider,” said Stavitsky, former associate dean at University of Oregon’s journalism school.

Through BendBroadband, Judd said customers can watch certain news and sporting events live. Programming, such as dramas, comedies or movies, is not available at the same time it airs on television. Depending on the network, customers have access to a variety of programs that already aired on TV, he said. Not all episodes of any given show are available presently.

The service is only available to BendBroadband customers. To view content, Judd said, they must log in. Viewers can only access programs from the networks they receive in their television packages.

Challenges

While watching on the Web has not generally required registration, the TV Everywhere authentication model is expanding online, Judd said, and it’s likely fewer networks will continue offering free TV content on the Web.

“I don’t think it would sustain their ability to make programming if they gave it away,” Judd said. “Imagine if everybody stopped paying for the production of content. … Soon, it’s all user-generated content.”

But one expert sees a potential problem with TV Everywhere and the same company providing the Internet, programming and cable services.

“There is a potential battle brewing between getting video directly from the producer over the Internet versus conventional means such as cable TV, Verizon’s FiOS or satellite,” Michael Noll, professor emeritus at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, wrote in an email. “Unfortunately for the consumer, cable companies also own studios, and thus are both a content and conduit provider.”

What’s next?

Noll said there are debates about whether the government should allow cable companies to have the control associated with being both content and conduit providers.

Rebecca Force, a professor at the University of Oregon’s School of Journalism and Communication, said commercials that air with shows online pay the bills. Whether networks or cable companies own the content, she said, commercials are still going to run.

Force said the benefits of TV Everywhere are its ease and convenience. It’s the idea of one-stop shopping for all of the viewer’s needs, she said.

Judd said it’s impossible to predict what technologies will come next, but one of the company’s TV Everywhere partners, HBO GO, recently enabled itsservice for Xbox 360.

BendBroadband’s TV Everywhere offers eight networks and plans to offer more later this year.