U.S. Supreme Court Pulls the Plug on Aereo's Streaming TV Service

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: NBC News

By Pete Williams

The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday dealt a potentially fatal blow to Aereo, an Internet service that allows customers to watch broadcast TV programs on mobile devices.

Launched a year ago in New York and then extended to 10 other U.S. cities, it allows customers to watch over-the-air TV programs on a smartphone, tablet, or computer for as little as $8 a month. Selections can be viewed live or recorded for later viewing.

Shortly after the service was launched, the nation's major broadcast networks filed a lawsuit claiming that Aereo illegally retransmited their programs without paying for them. The court ruled against Aereo by a vote of 6-3.

Justice Stephen Breyer, writing for the majority, stressed that it was a limited decision that will not “discourage the emergence or use of different kinds of technologies.”




Read more: http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/u-s-supreme-court-pulls-plug-aereos-streaming-tv-service-n140486

---

Saw a NY Times banner on it too...

If I remember correctly reading articles about them, they had an interesting concept - I believe using many many tiny antennas - one assigned to each subscriber, to basically offer OTA reception & distribution of broadcast channels. Apparently this business model wasn't accepted.

[PatrynXX]

1. this was a questionable one

as far as legalities go. course what the rich will do is probably copy his design. Question is. who bought them??

[BumRushDaShow]

6. I expect, not unlike Napster

that someone might revamp them in order to negotiate a modest license fee to rebroadcast. The networks are bleeding viewers badly so those broadcasters may want to consider only charging something very miniscule (to be affordable) so as not to not break the low-cost model. That way, they can at least capture non-TV set viewers of their content for a fee rather than lose them entirely and get nothing at all from that segment.

[RKP5637]

9. I only watch traditional TV as a last resort. Generally I use ROKU, the internet and PLEX. I think

broadcasters are really behind the times. They are trying to push basically the same model they had back in the 50's IMO.

[LittleGirl]

2. We pulled our satellite service

a few years ago and used the computer to watch things but slowly and surely since, those web sites were blocked or made so inefficient (with multiple pop up ads) that I had to beg spouse to allow us to get some kind of service again. We got direct tv with a smoking deal and can now watch HBO as well with just the basic service. Spouse was on the phone for an hour making sure there were no hidden fees or charges. We watch very little live tv now with the DVR so we can fast forward through commercials.

[PatrynXX]

3. I own too many movies

and many are on ultraviolet and some are tv shows. that it's sort of obsolete except local channels too bad Digital signal sucks. When they offered those rebates they said nothing about needing an outdoor antenna. sigh... let alone asking people to cut their trees down (direct tv. same thing)

[pstokely]

5. can't you get OTA with an antenna?

nt

[LittleGirl]

8. yes and we had an antenna

but it broke getting blown over from the wind multiple times. I didn't know this until we got the direct tv and the spouse threw the antenna away. I asked him why he threw it away and he said it was broken. hmmmmm. you would not believe the fight I had to push to get some basic tv in this house. argh.

[pstokely]

16. can you get OTA with rabbit eears?

nt

[LittleGirl]

17. we have a wall mounted

HD antenna on the back of the tv without satellite and we get about 5 of the local 11 channels on it. We are the side of a hill and our reception is iffy from our living room. That's why we had an antenna on the roof but we still couldn't get several of the local channels.

[jeff47]

20. If you want to get them...

This site is quite helpful:
http://www.antennapoint.com/

Tells you where to point directional antennas in order to get the channel. The vast majority of the time, the TV station's transmitter is located in some oddball place you wouldn't expect.

[LittleGirl]

21. Yup, that's the one we used before

when we had the antenna and still couldn't get all of the channels.

[BumRushDaShow]

13. Ever since the move to digital broadcasts

some folks suddenly got crappy service OTA (even with a supposed DTV antenna). I know here in Philly, the local ABC affiliate wanted to keep its VHF frequency (where most of the others went UHF despite having been "traditional" VHF), which resulted in serious reception issues.

http://www.tvtechnology.com/news/0110/fixing-vhf-dtv-reception-problems/202489

Also from what I understand - like digital radio, digital television broadcast reach/range is reduced when compared to analog, so anyone who might have been in a fringe area (with some acceptable reception using a roof-top antenna), may have been SOL after the broadcast conversion (which is generally what prompted the establishment of cable in the first place). One of my family members in NH lived too far from Boston to get reliable coverage and visiting there in the early '70s was my first exposure to cable TV (which they got due to the reception issue - even having tried a huge roof antenna)!

[jeff47]

18. It's primarily a frequency issue

UHF doesn't travel as far as the old VHF stations. UHF also does not penetrate walls as well as VHF.

There's also the problem where back in the analog days, you could watch TV with some snow and other artifacts on the TV. Digital means you either get the signal or you do not.

Also, you may find that you need a directional antenna, or amplifier to pick up some signals. http://www.antennapoint.com/ is a very handy site for figuring out what you can get, and from where.

[BumRushDaShow]

22. Yup but

in the case here in Philly, 2 channels - the stations "Channel 6" & "Channel 12 are using VHF and the frequencies are adjacent to FM radio frequencies. I remember we used to be able to pick up the channel 6 broadcast ~89.x FM. Channel 12 does actually broadcast separate programming on 91 FM (90.9) on the radio. In any case, the stations had to get approval to boost power to try to get around the reception issues.

I remember back during the transition going on various forums to get the latest mojo on antenna sites and antennas.

[Auggie]

4. The majority vote: Breyer, Roberts, Kennedy, Ginsberg, Sotomayor, Kagan

The liberal justice Stephen Breyer wrote the majority opinion and was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts as well as Justices Anthony Kennedy, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan. Justice Antonin Scalia filed the dissenting opinion and was joined by Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.

In his dissent, Scalia writes that Aereo shouldn't be held liable for copyright infringement because users are the ones who select the programs they want to watch. Aereo is essentially a "copy shop," Scalia argued, a degree of involvement which isn't sufficient to make it liable for copyright infringement.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/aereo-supreme-court-ruling-2014-6#ixzz35f9w4C1w

[lostincalifornia]

10. unfortunately this ruling was expected and because it rebroadcasts the singles it does violate

copyrights. Aero could continue if they wanted to pay those rebroadcast fees, they just don't

Scalia's argument is kind of bizarre. "A degree of involvement which isn't sufficient to make it liable for copyright infringement" I would be curious as to what degree of involvement he believes would make it copyright infringement

[The Green Manalishi]

27. Damn, I find myself agreeing with Scalia, Thomas and Alito ?!?!?

WTF, I'd better go home for the day aick, give myself an enema and instruct my wife to shoot me if I try to change my registration to Republican.

Christ on a cracker.. WTF is wrong with those morons.

[Auggie]

30. LOL

I thought the same thing, though not as graphically.

[tomm2thumbs]

7. my guess is they'll have to set up 2 different companies to make this legal

• One company will supply antennas for live viewing of broadcasted shows
• Another unrelated company will supply a digital VCR service that lets you personally record/playback all phone content

The closest thing I can think of is how an optometrist has a separate office right in Costco's warehouse, but technically is a separate entity so Costco is not legally the one supplying eyeglass/contact prescriptions. They are technically separate, even if in the same space.

If nothing else, I'm guessing they have multiple back-up plans to try and go forward.

[lostincalifornia]

11. all they need to do is pay the rebroadcast fees, and Aero survives

[jeff47]

19. Probably not. Their business model is to be way cheaper than the alternatives.

Add in the rebroadcast fees, and their price is pretty close to basic cable.

[lostincalifornia]

24. Even if it was the same price as basic cable I would bet they would get a good percentage of people

who want to cut the cord with their cable providers, plus it gives them an extra option of portability that cable doesn't supply without extra costs

[JCMach1]

29. Aeor is just a technological road bump as many local channels

broadcast through their own channels through services like ROKU

[Bickle]

35. No, that won't work

The purpose offal of this has been to create a customer base, and raise their profile to be bought for. Aware a mount of money

Google, Fomcast, and I'm sure a few other cable companies have expressed interest. Why? Because they already have the licenses. They're simply ging to pay much less than if Aereomeon.

The man behind the curtain is Barry Diller, thirty year+ TV executive. He knows exactly what he's doing. And any person who knows anything about television or internet video knew what they were doing was npblatant retransmission

[Demit]

36. what is 'npblatant retransmission'? I decoded the rest but that one stumps me.

[Bickle]

37. Blatant retransmission

In other words, they receive the signal from the tower, a signal by the way that is typically 5-20 times the size of the Aereo stream at 19.2mbps (as little as 12-14 depending on the number of sub-channels contained in that signal which results in approximately 8GB per hour of DVR) in the MPEG-2 codec Aereo then re-encodes the signal to MPEG-4, at under 3Mbps (typically much less than that), and sends to their customer this new signal, the definition of retransmission.

The issue at hand here is a predatory corporatist claiming the law and rules don't apply to them, even if they found a loophole, which they didn't due to the community antenna ruling.

Aereo just has to make the deals, and raise prices a dollar to cover those fees. They don't want to. Barry Diller wanted to pump it and sell it to cable companies who already have these agreements as a way to retain cord cutters. And it's going to work, he's just not going to make bajillions like he hoped

[liberal N proud]

12. My wife has been pushing to dump cable for streaming

I have resisted simply because I feared there would be problems and either the cost would increase to where there was no difference of they would get shut down all together.

You can't get anything for nothing!

[philosslayer]

14. This was the ruling the Obama administration lobbied for

Therefore, I'm confident its the right ruling.

[NYC Liberal]

15. Dumb, dumb, dumb. I could use Aereo, where I'm at least still seeing the ads.

Or I could just torrent everything, which cuts out all the ads.

So I guess it's back to torrenting.

[davidpdx]

40. +1

Just don't say that very loud, someone is listening you know.

[geretogo]

23. No loss there . I know of nothing worth watching on tv to waste data space on a phone .

[Salviati]

25. For once Scalia gets one right.

There's a pretty good write up of the decision and dissent written by Scalia over at techdirt.

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140625/09340227683/supreme-court-uses-bizarre-looks-like-cable-duck-test-to-outlaw-aereo.shtml

[DinahMoeHum]

26. I'd love to cut cable, but what do you do for live sports? Suggestions?

As long as ESPN and other sports networks are beholden to the cable companies, I'm stuck.

Any suggestions would be welcome.

[pstokely]

28. sports bar?

nt

[angrychair]

33. ESPN3

Go to http://www.espn3.com it has all current and recently past games...I've watched several World Cup games from there. Great quality

[pstokely]

41. you need a cable subscription for that

nt

[angrychair]

43. ESPN requires ONLY an Internet connection

I don't have cable. Maybe in your area you have to have cable but I know several people that use it all the time that do not. There is no sign in or setup...just go to the website.

[TheKentuckian]

34. Little to no answer, throw in with someone and get their espn3 login but the blackouts and exclusive

broadcast will still get you.

[tammywammy]

39. You could get a Roku and then subscribe to MLB, NHL, etc.

I cut cable and use a Roku 3. I don't watch sports, so it's not a big deal to me. I have a digital antenna for my local channels.

[bananas]

31. "many many tiny antennas - one assigned to each subscriber"

I didn't know this. From the article in the OP:

Aereo argued that it was not covered by the law because of the way its system was designed: when a user chose a program to watch, a single micro antenna, about the size of a penny, was assigned to receive the chosen station. The signal was sent to a sector of a video recorder dedicated to that choice and then streamed to the customer.

For that reason, the company said, it does not create a public performance. Even if thousands of users were watching the same program, Aereo said, it creates thousands of individual performances.

[DeSwiss]

32. Good. The less teevee watched, the better. :-\ n/t

[Reter]

38. The world was a better place when we had Napster, WinMX, Kazza, and Limewire

Freedom died a little when they did.