Time Warner's iPad TV service cut back due to overwhelming demand

Earlier this week, Time Warner Cable released its new iPad app, which allowed users to watch live TV on the device if they met certain key conditions. The app only works when connected to residential networks that are connected to TWC's RoadRunner cable modem ISP service, or the parallel Earthlink service delivered by TWC, and users have to subscribe to a base tier of cable TV service as well.

Who knew live TV would be so popular? Apparently the service has already been overwhelmed with demand. Customers couldn't log in yesterday due to the drain on the authentication servers, and Time Warner has had to cut back the number of channels available to watch from 30 to just 15. Keep in mind, this is a huge amount of demand from the relatively small audience covered by the restrictions above. But apparently that was enough -- even with just those users, the service was completely overrun.

That hasn't stopped Time Warner from promising improvements, however -- the company still says it plans to add even more than the 30 channels that were supposed to be available at launch, and the service is expected to turn into a Slingbox-style solution, with Time Warner subscribers able to watch television from anywhere. Those days may be a little while off yet, though. Obviously, any setup like that will clearly require a large and dedicated infrastructure to run well.