Posted on 05/13/2012 3:18:44 AM PDT by Libloather
Aereo could kill TV business model, broadcasters say
By Andrew Feinberg - 05/11/12 01:22 PM ET
Barry Diller's upstart Aereo service, which lets paying customers record and watch over-the-air television stations online, could destroy the economic model behind television, an NBC-Universal exec said in a court filing.
Aereo is being sued by all of the major television broadcasters in federal court in New York, where the service was launched. In a sworn declaration, NBC-Universal executive vice president for content distribution Matt Bond said Aereo could alter how cable and satellite companies handle traditional TV stations. He said Aereo could let the companies pull TV stations off antennae and no longer need to retransmit them from a central location — the practice that allows TV stations to charge retransmission consent fees.
"It makes little economic sense for cable systems and satellite broadcasters to continue to pay for NBCU content on a per-subscriber basis when, with a relatively modest investment, they can simply modify their operations to mirror Aereo's 'individual antenna' scheme and retransmit, for free, over-the-air local broadcast programming," Bond said. "I know for a fact that cable companies have already considered such a model."
Broadcasters filed a number of similar declarations Wednesday in a bid for a preliminary injunction to shut down Aereo during the course of the lawsuit. If they don't get it, broadcasters are afraid cable and satellite providers will implement their own "individual antenna" systems and stop paying broadcasters, which would make broadcasters less likely to pay for programming like NFL games.
Aereo has some support in a 2008 ruling that said Cablevision's Internet DVR service didn't infringe on copyrights. But in a separate filing, broadcasters say the Cablevision case only addresses "time-shifting," as defined in the landmark Betamax case — not retransmission of over-the-air broadcasts by Aereo, which they call a "free-rider."
In their filing, the broadcasters said "there is no basis for reading Cablevision as applicable to real-time retransmissions simply because Aereo's 'device or process' employs a buffer copy and a streaming server."
If the court were to rule in Aereo's favor, they say it would allow Aereo to assert that retransmissions are private performances, which could undermine section 101 of the Copyright Act.
Bond suggests that allowing Aereo to exist could lead to widespread "cord-cutting," which could undermine cable television revenues as well as broadcast.
"Once those subscribers migrate from traditional MVPDs [multichannel video programming distributors], there is no guarantee they will come back, even if Aereo's service ultimately is found to be illegal at trial," he said.
The filings were first reported and published by The Hollywood Reporter.
To hell with the ‘TV business model’ and your way to loud, obnoxious commercials and continuous social propaganda.
Excuse my confusion.
Why would anyone actually want to watch over-the-air network programming?
Bunch of boring cr@p, riddled with homosexual propaganda, pre-occupied with carefully polishing Obama’s boots 24/7.
Who cares about “over-the-air network programming”?
Haven’t watched any in 2 years. Who needs it?
Just my humble guess...but by 2025...the vast majority of TV viewing will be done over the internet....NOT cable TV or over-the-air. I’m also betting that foreign TV shows will also find their way onto the streaming business, and we start to discover thirty years of various productions from the Netherlands, Germany, and Italy. As for the local channels? I think their only value left is tornado warnings and local news....that’s it.
Interesting to see how this works out.
Cry me a river. Those buggy wip manufacturers “business model” was pretty much destroyed by the model T. That’s life chump. Adapt or die.
Bump.
I’ve even replaced my “boot up channel” which had been Fox, with the Weather Channel.
Even Fox is useless anymore.
Reporters come and go so frequently in our TV market that none have time to learn the local scene. Quite worthless.
I’ve been telling folks for a long time that the first step to saving the country is to turn off the televisions.
People just want to watch shows not 15 minutes of liberal commercials with their shows.
The stations are too far away, you get bumkis without a satellite dish.
Yeah, I went from 2 channels(and 2 that kinda sorta came in) before the digital switchover, to zero channels after.
Interesting... Let’s see how the economic model changes once again.
In any case I am sure that the FCC will be in favor of this once someone points out that the radio spectrum being utilized by over the air broadcasting could be used for Broadband wireless. Thereby opening up a new business model.
Well, sort of in the opposite situation here.
Cable and local channels out the ying-yang.
None of which is worth even watching anymore. Bunch of shrill leftist propaganda and cr@p.
Seriously, it’s become a waste of time. Socialist nonsense.
More FR. Less Hollyweird cr@p.
Other than the...no signal
no signal
no signal
no signal
Jumping across the TV screen. But DAMN, that came in perfect!
I'm lucky enough to not even need them for that. I live close enough to the tornado siren that I can hear it clearly in the event I need to.
TV? What's that?!
barry diller “the killer” is bad JuJu... bad medicine... a george soros styled jerk. He alone destroyed the SciFi channel and everything else he touches.
LLS
On my TV the only things left are tornado warnings and some NASCAR races.
The local news casts give very little news with lots of fluff to fill the remaining time. The internet is my source of news.
Pick the word(s) that apply to you:
- Wise
- Sage
- Prophetic
- Patriot
However long you've been saying it, you're exactly right. We went from having the TV on non-stop here, mostly just for "background noise" not even really paying attention to it, to basically turning it on at 10:10'ish at night and off at 10:20'ish at night just to catch the local weather.
As much as I'd like to eliminate that, the Weather Channel website has to get MUCH better at local forecasts than the local weathercaster first.
By the way, what an improvement in family life and COMMUNICATION with the kids (14 and 16) now that the idiot box (read that: TV) is relegated to such a minor role.
Save the country, save the family unit and turn off the damn' TV!!!
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