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.
Well put.
Cable TV in general is garbage. Got rid of everything but the minimum service last year. And it made sense to keep that because I get Internet through my cable provider and its nearly free. Now basically stream Netflix content through my Roku box. I miss FX and the Comedy Channel a little but they weren’t worth $50/month.
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!!!
Add Jesus Saves to this and you do not even have to go to church today. Thanks for the sermon. You are right on! TV folk are more fake than politicians.
ETWN is one of the better cable only offerings ~ and I'm not even Catholic but where else you gonna' find Catholic Freepers actually interviewed as serious newsmakers.
Even O'Reilly is competing well against everything but SouthPark.
We cut our TV a year or so ago, and now have only cable Internet. Any programming we want to watch we can download. I hooked a pair of rabbit ears to the TV and we receive 29 digital stations over the air, although we’ve only watched them a few times!
Yes, the Weather Channel is good.
Also I like “Parking Wars” especially the Detroit episodes. It is the ultimate reality show about a city run by Marxists, the only remaining revenue being parking fines. An out-of-town guy driving a rental car parked in front of his hotel to go in to register. When he came out,the car had been towed to the city pound.
They set a new low standard for how we might talk about others we dislike.
There’s a good 30 years of hard core porn available from French cable ~ where Prostitutes advertise their services.
When I was still living down in Louisiana, one of the MOST useful cable channels was a continuous feed of the closest national weather radar station, with a voice-over of the local conditions. No idiot broadcasters, empty suits, commentary, "tornado chaser" fill material.....just the radar display. Much to my surprise here in the Puget Sound area (where the weather is just as, if not more, changeable), no comparable channel is available.
See Post #29
Try this link:
http://www.wunderground.com/ Enter your zip code.
Click on “wundermap” about half way down on the right, then launch the weather radio (lower left) at the same time.
Voila. You’re good to go.
Add the storm tracks feature on the wundermap. It’s darn interesting when weather is rolling in.
I hope this company kicks the cable companies assessed. I am so sick and tired of having to pay $80 a month for sports and other events I cut the cord a while ago and now I just rely on the net for my television.
Interesting. Thanks for posting.
Through you’re Romulus box you can still get those shows if you download the amazon cod channel. I still get new Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia episodes. And South Park studios streams their content nonlinear.
Romulous = roku stupid ipad spell check
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rOoQDkyfJc
Video overview
==
It sounds like it is more of an Internet ‘antenna’ system that offers two streams of ‘local’ TV broadcasting, with a fee for the service.
From the description in the video, I don’t see how cable or satellite companies have any room for their gripes. It sounds as if the service is more like an over-the-air antenna booster that would provide access to ‘local’ tv broadcast signals.
I personally hate the current cable/satelite models. I have to pay for all the anti-American stations like CNN and MSNBC in the basic package and then have to pay extra for the real news on Fox. Too bad Murdoch doesn’t have his own satelite or cable distribution service. Imagine how bad CNN and MSNBC would tank if they didn’t have the revenues from the current system. They get paid even though they have a very small percentage of viewers and yet Fox kicks their butt even though many households don’t even get Fox on their basic package. I have always said I would pay more just to be able to pick 20 stations and not have to support the leftist idiots on CNN and MSNBC. I imagine the future is by internet and that eventually individual networks will become available online by subscription.
We lost a couple fringe channels due to digital being either all on or all off (can't get fuzzy receptions) but ost are still available via the 28 yuear old analogue antenna that we maintain in case satelite craps out.
Perhaps the majority of over 55 voters? Especially those who are unable to support themselves without the government dole.
I like the wondermap, but I prefer the storm tracker on the regular radar. It seems to give me a better idea about the nature of the different cells of the approaching storms. Perhaps I’m missing a setting on the wondermap. Last March, when a tornado was approaching Ann Arbor, I had two browsers open, one with the regular radar, and one with the wondermap, so I could advise my daughter what to do as she was hunkered down with her cat in the basement of her apartment building.
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