Aereo

After launching in New York, Boston and Atlanta, and with plans to arrive in Chicago in September, Aereo is taking its tiny antennas out West. The streaming video service that uses an array of micro antennas to capture over-the-air TV signals and distribute them via IP to smartphones, tablets and online to subscribers plans on launching in 29 counties in Utah on Aug. 19.

As another television programming blackout looms, this time because of a high-stakes negotiation between the CBS Corporation and Time Warner Cable, there is a new wrinkle, courtesy of Aereo, the start-up that streams broadcast TV via the Internet. While Time Warner Cable does not seem ready or willing to deploy Aereo-like technology, a spokeswoman, Maureen Huff, said Sunday that it would recommend Aereo to its New York subscribers if CBS was blacked out.

Online video company Aereo says the new copyright lawsuit filed against it by Hearst in Boston should be transferred to New York, where the startup has been battling the major TV broadcasters since last year.

U.S. Circuit Judge Denny Chin issued a blistering dissent after the full 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan refused to make the Aereo Inc. case one of the rare instances when it assembles all of its judges to decide an issue. Chin dissented from that decision as well, though he went farther Tuesday, describing how the April 1 decision had damaged the financial landscape of free television. He said it “eviscerates the Copyright Act” and “upends settled industry expectations and established law.”

In a decision that disappointed but didn’t entirely surprise broadcasters, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on Tuesday declined to rehear in banc its earlier decision rejecting a request by broadcasters to terminate with extreme prejudice Aereo’s broadcast subscription service in New York. As interesting as the legal dispute itself is (at least to lawyers), the end result may well be governed more by technology than by law. If you have spent much time in the communications world, you have heard the old saw that “the law struggles to keep up with technology.” In the case of Aereo, however, it has been quite the opposite, with technology struggling to keep up with the law.

The broadcaster’s desire to shut Aereo down could end up at the Supreme Court. After its bid for rehearing of its copyright infringement case at an appeals court was turned down today, Fox said: “The Second Circuit’s denial of our request for an ‘en banc’ hearing, while disappointing was not unexpected.  We will now review our options and determine the appropriate course of action, which include seeking a hearing in the U.S. Supreme Court and proceeding to a full trial on the merits of the case.”

Aereo Inc., the online television service facing lawsuits by broadcast TV networks in New York for copyright infringement, was sued in Boston by the Hearst-owned ABC affiliate over similar claims.

A group of 18 CBS affiliates argue in new court papers that Aereo’s lawsuit against them should be thrown out on the grounds that it raises questions that are already pending in litigation between CBS and Aereo.

Aereo is bringing its tiny antennas to the Windy City this September. The streaming video provider that takes over-the-air signals in a market and streams them to subscribers who pay $8/month said it will launch in Chicago (DMA 3) on Sept. 13, joining New York, Boston and Atlanta.

Comcast Corp. says Aereo, a company that distributes broadcast programming on the Web, violates its copyrights, but according to often-contrarian analyst Richard Greenfield of BTIG, the cable giant is fighting the tech firm at its own peril. Comcast has argued that the Web TV company distributes its content without permission, which hurts its broadcaster, NBC Universal. CBS, Fox and ABC have all made similar legal arguments. But Aereo could help Comcast’s pay-TV business, Greenfield said in a note to clients Monday.

In the ongoing legal battle over Aereo, the upstart digital TV distributor won’t be able to ask CBS CEO Leslie Moonves questions under oath about how Aereo’s presence in the marketplace has affected the network’s negotiations with cable and satellite companies.

The broadcast networks could cut into Barry Diller’s fledgling livestreaming service’s business by livestreaming themselves.

Participants at today’s SNL Kagan TV and Radio Finance Summit say the best outcome for broadcasters in their fight against Barry Diller’s Internet streaming service would be a court reversal that would put it out of business while the various cases work their way through the courts. But that’s not likely and the matter could go to the Supreme Court. Another option to resolve the dispute would require new copyright legislation from Congress.

Executives linked with Fox, CBS and Univision have suggested the networks could move to pay TV distribution should Aereo be allowed to operate without paying retransmission consent fees. Pressed on the matter this week, Comcast CFO Michael Angelakis held back on whether NBC would consider a similar route.

Aereo’s careful plan to upend the TV industry was going fine — until a company run by a Los Angeles playboy, with a streaming service of its own, got in the way. Here’s an inside view of what happened.

Over the course of Barry Diller’s long career, he has jumped from movies to television, to cable and finally to the Web. Now he is backing a company, Aereo Inc., that wants to sell access to broadcast television on the Web — though a digital antenna — for a fraction of what cable charges. Broadcast networks, claiming copyright infringement, oppose what Aereo is doing. Some cable executives, including CNN Worldwide President Jeff Zucker, don’t exactly approve, either. Both men sat down to talk about Aereo, CNN and the future of television and the Web.

In litigation over Aereo’s expansion, lawyers for CBS say the words “we will sue” doesn’t amount to a “concrete promise” to do just that around the nation.

ABC chief Anne Sweeney slammed Barry Diller’s Aereo online TV service on Wednesday. “It’s opportunistic piracy,” she said. “With all due respect [to Diller], it’s taking advantage of our content.” Sweeney made the remarks during an onstage interview at the AllThingsDigital conference, where Diller had appeared earlier in the day.

Barry Diller, the chairman of IAC and backer of the online-TV service Aereo, said the service would expand to 22 cities in the next six to eight months, and that the ultimate goal was to create original content to push through the service.

Are cord-cutters most likely to subscribe to Aereo? Not necessarily, according to early returns. CEO Chet Kanojia told investors Thursday that 50% of its customers have a pay-TV subscription.

The Barry Diller-backed digital disruptor drew instant lawsuits from all four TV networks until two litigators figured out a way to fight back.

In its  fight with broadcasters, the Barry Diller-backed streaming company files for summary judgment in the case that examines the legality of its service of providing consumers with the ability to access over-the-air TV programming on digital devices.

At a Senate Communications Subcommittee hearing, the NAB CEO says he understands Fox’s suggestion that it might move its programming to cable if the streaming service doesn’t pay it for its programming. “Fox produces enormously valuable content that gets huge viewership, and they have to figure out how to pay for it.” He also took exception to a suggestion by Sen. Mark Warner that broadcasters had not paid for their spectrum, pointing out the importance of public service efforts, including providing local news, weather and sports information — and providing coverage of emergencies “that is literally a lifeline.”

The controversial streaming video provider lowered its base plan monthly price and is giving users the option to add more hours of storage to its cloud-based DVR.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) today announced proposed legislation titled the Television Consumer Freedom Act that would pave the way towards an à la carte system of pay television as well as penalize broadcasters who abandon public airwaves in the wake of digital TV upstart Aereo.

Legislation being drafted by Sen. John McCain is in response to broadcaster threats of shifting network shows to cable if the courts affirm the right of Barry Diller’s Aereo and similar services to retransmit broadcast programming online without paying broadcasters.

The streaming video provider wants to block CBS — and, presumably, other broadcasters — from making good on a threat to file suits across the country to address the same issue: whether Aereo violates their copyrights. That’s already being debated at the U.S. District Court in New York, Aereo’s only current market. But CBS chief Les Moonves said last week that as Aereo expands — including in Boston this month — “we’ll sue them again” in different jurisdictions. Aereo asked the New York court this morning for a declaratory judgment that would try to establish it as the sole locale for the legal battle.

Aereo Inc. CEO Chet Kanojia challenged CBS and Fox to follow through on threats to go off the air and switch to cable to prevent the Internet startup from retransmitting their shows without permission. Lower advertising revenue from cable and pressure from lawmakers will make it difficult to put the switch into practice, Kanojia says.

Time Warner Cable joins a growing chorus of companies that are beginning to chip away at long-held business relationships with major broadcast television networks. CEO Glenn Britt: “What Aereo is doing to bring broadcast signals to its customers is interesting. If it is found legal, we could conceivably use similar technology,” he says.

Les Moonves is out to get Aereo by any means necessary, but he “doesn’t lose sleep over it,” the CBS Corp. president-CEO told the Milken Institute’s Global Conference Tuesday.  The CBS chief did say that if the situation couldn’t be resolved in the courts, he is more than willing to take CBS to cable. “We can do it in a few days. If we go to cable, if we are forced to, then about 10% of America will not get our signal and I don’t think they will like that,”

IAC chief Barry Diller says the TV networks and studios’ impending petitions for government intervention against his streaming service are also futile: “No incumbent ever wants to see its territory invaded.”

Fox may have been overly dramatic with its recent threat to turn its broadcast network into a cable one if Aereo doesn’t stop streaming. But media buyers and planners agree that the new service, which allows people to stream content from local stations, does indeed represent a serious threat to the broadcast business model. That’s the finding of a recent Media Life poll inviting readers to weigh in on Aereo and its potential impact on the broadcast networks.

More than 4.5 million Boston-area consumers will have access to Aereo’s antenna technology to watch live television online starting May 15.

Barry Diller’s streaming service threatens the retrans revenue that the broadcasters earn. A new report puts a number on those potential losses: $27.4 billion.

The future of TV is a patchwork of digital services rather than cable providers dominating markets around the country, panelist after panelist told the audience at Ad Age’s Digital Conference Wednesday. Of course, the speakers in question — CEOs of the growing disruptors Aereo, Redbox Instant By Verizon and Hulu — have big stakes in the outcome. But so do the big broadcasters trying to sue Aereo out of existence or the consumers clamoring for more choice and lower bills.

TV broadcasters have petitioned the Second Circuit Court of Appeals for an “en banc” review in the Aereo case. The move comes after the appellate circuit agreed with a lower district court judge in denying an injunction against the digital TV upstart.

News Corp. CEO Chase Carey’s declaration that it will turn its broadcast network and stations into cable channels if Aereo is not stopped sends a message — a warning really — that Aereo is a menace to the broadcasting business and to the millions of viewers who enjoy and rely on the over-the-air service. But there are other options for Fox in the fight against online pirates: live streaming and mobile DTV. Establishment of those services won’t leave much room in the marketplace for third parties waving another monthly bill in front of consumers.