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Federal court bans Aereo streaming in 6 states

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Federal court bans Aereo streaming in 6 states

Old 02-21-14, 02:00 PM
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Federal court bans Aereo streaming in 6 states

This could be either short-lived or permanent, depending on how the Supreme Court hearing goes (currently scheduled for April 2014). It's now available in my area, and I am going to do a free trial at the very least since the antenna reception at our house is so unreliable.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2...o-ban/5639991/
Online television streaming company Aereo recently won a big battle against television broadcasters in New York, but a federal judge in Utah has just issued an injunction against the service, effecting a temporary ban that covers Utah, Wyoming, New Mexico, Kansas, Colorado and Oklahoma.

The ruling comes as a blow to Aereo, and possibly to all Internet-based TV streaming entities. By renting out an antenna to each customer, the company streams OTA television content to users' PCs, set-top boxes and mobile devices. Customers can pay more for extra services, such as multichannel DVR recording. Aereo has seen rapid growth in recent months, but the ruling in Utah is certainly a bump in the road.

According to the judge, Aereo's streaming and retransmission of copyrighted programs is prohibited by law unless licensing fees are paid to big broadcasters like CBS and Fox. Cable companies have paid such fees for years, but Aereo has maintained that it is exempt since customers pay for access to individual antennas, and all Aereo does is forward the signal.

The same issue has been argued in courts in Boston and New York, and Aereo has come out on top every time. In April, debate is headed to the Supreme Court, where Aereo's fate will ultimately be decided.
Old 02-21-14, 02:18 PM
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Re: Federal court bans Aereo streaming in 6 states

Wow
Old 02-21-14, 02:36 PM
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Re: Federal court bans Aereo streaming in 6 states

I can't see such a pro-business conservative Supreme Court allowing Aereo to continue. There are too many big-money interests opposing it.
Old 02-21-14, 03:13 PM
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Re: Federal court bans Aereo streaming in 6 states

Man, everything is favoring the greedy ones this year.
Old 02-21-14, 04:05 PM
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Re: Federal court bans Aereo streaming in 6 states

I don't understand why this is a "problem". Don't the broadcast networks WANT more eyeballs?
Old 02-21-14, 04:46 PM
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Re: Federal court bans Aereo streaming in 6 states

Originally Posted by Groucho
I don't understand why this is a "problem". Don't the broadcast networks WANT more eyeballs?
Not as much as they want fees from cable and satellite customers.
Old 02-21-14, 05:06 PM
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Re: Federal court bans Aereo streaming in 6 states

Originally Posted by Mr. Salty
Not as much as they want fees from cable and satellite customers.
Yeah, those retransmission fees they get from cable and satellite add up:
http://www.fiercecable.com/story/com...013/2013-02-26
Comcast expects that it will generate $200 million in retransmission-consent fees from its NBC stations [in 2013]--an increase of about 400 percent compared to the fees it collected from cable operators and satellite TV providers in 2012, CFO Michael Angelakis said Tuesday.
2013 had the most retransmission "blackouts" due to disputes between networks and the cable and satellite companies:
http://www.americantelevisionallianc...ewers-in-2014/
...there were 12 blackouts in 2010, 51 in 2011, 91 in 2012, and a record-setting 127 [in 2013].
The networks basically feel that Aereo isn't any different than a cable company.
Old 02-21-14, 06:22 PM
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Re: Federal court bans Aereo streaming in 6 states

Originally Posted by Jay G.
Yeah, those retransmission fees they get from cable and satellite add up:


The networks basically feel that Aereo isn't any different than a cable company.
Amazing, a 400 percent increase year-over-year and that's not enough for them.

Aereo isn't available where I live, but luckily I can receive all the local stations with a small, indoor antenna. I ditched satellite this year for streaming and OTA. To hell with paying for free TV.
Old 02-21-14, 08:50 PM
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Re: Federal court bans Aereo streaming in 6 states

Originally Posted by Mr. Salty
I can't see such a pro-business conservative Supreme Court allowing Aereo to continue. There are too many big-money interests opposing it.
This is the same pro-business conservative Supreme Court that upheld Obamacare?

WTF are you talking about?
Old 02-21-14, 09:24 PM
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Re: Federal court bans Aereo streaming in 6 states

Originally Posted by DVD Josh
This is the same pro-business conservative Supreme Court that upheld Obamacare?

WTF are you talking about?
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/05/bu...anted=all&_r=0
Old 04-21-14, 02:32 PM
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Re: Federal court bans Aereo streaming in 6 states

Oral arguments begin tomorrow at 11:00 A.M. EDT. SCOTUSblog has both a timeline and a preview.
Old 04-21-14, 02:49 PM
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Re: Federal court bans Aereo streaming in 6 states

There was an oral argument in my house last night. I lost.
Old 04-24-14, 09:36 AM
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Originally Posted by Groucho
There was an oral argument in my house last night. I lost.
You're a mod here though, so you get to win all the arguments. It balances out .
Old 04-27-14, 10:08 PM
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Re: Federal court bans Aereo streaming in 6 states

Originally Posted by Mr. Salty
Not as much as they want fees from cable and satellite customers.
Exactly. The days of over-the-air/antenna television sustaining through advertising alone are long over. Even though you can get those stations for free from a digital antenna, they've gotten to used to money from cable/satellite providers to go back even an inch. But that's only why they're fighting this. The fact remains that they're over-the-air, and that alone should make Aereo legally clear. But money does seem to influence trials...
But then Aereo is charging for it monthly, as opposed to a digital antenna that you just buy outright.
Old 06-25-14, 10:37 AM
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Re: Federal court bans Aereo streaming in 6 states

http://www.thewrap.com/aereo-investo...mpany-is-over/

http://www.deadline.com/2014/06/aere...-diller-loses/


Aereo is dead. Barry Diller proclaimed it today. They lost 6 to 3 today via Supreme Court ruling that it violates copyrights when it streams Network transmissions without permission.
Old 06-25-14, 12:41 PM
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Re: Federal court bans Aereo streaming in 6 states

And the steady decline of Broadcast Television will continue.
Old 06-29-14, 09:04 PM
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Re: Federal court bans Aereo streaming in 6 states

Originally Posted by Groucho
I don't understand why this is a "problem". Don't the broadcast networks WANT more eyeballs?
I don't think they do. They'd rather keep their current flock of sheep and gradually increase their rates, year after year after year.

While taking out any competition along the way...the sheep will have nothing else to graze on in the future if they get distracted by increasing prices.
Old 06-30-14, 06:48 AM
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Re: Federal court bans Aereo streaming in 6 states

Originally Posted by DVD Polizei
While taking out any competition along the way...
Speaking of which...

In Aereo’s wake, Fox targets Dish’s TV streaming service

Fox and others won a high-profile copyright case against upstart Aereo on Wednesday, in which the Supreme Court held in a 6-3 vote that Aereo was offering services akin to a cable company and therefore needed the broadcasters' permission to retransmit their content to online viewers. Armed with that decision, Fox told a federal appeals court that the high court's decision means Dish's Hopper DVR sideloading platform and the Dish Anywhere streaming platform should also be declared illegal.

Fox lawyer Richard Stone wrote (PDF) to the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals, which is set to hear the Fox-Dish case next month in California, saying:

"In Aereo, the Supreme Court held that Aereo's unauthorized retransmission of Fox's television programming over the Internet constitutes an unauthorized public performance of Fox's copyrighted works. Dish, which engages in virtually identical conduct when it streams Fox's programming to Dish subscribers over the Internet—albeit also in violation of an express contractual prohibition—has repeatedly raised the same defenses as Aereo which have now been rejected by the Supreme Court. Among other things, the Supreme Court rejected Aereo's argument... that it is merely an equipment provider and that Aereo's subscribers were the ones transmitting content over the Internet to themselves."
For its part, Dish uses a protocol created by streaming service Slingbox, operated by a former Dish partner. Allowing Dish consumers to stream Fox content without permission, Stone wrote, amounts to an "unauthorized public performance."

Dish countered in a Thursday filing with the appeals court and said the Aereo decision was not analogous to Dish's streaming service.

"The first distinction lies in the Court’s constant refrain that Aereo looks just like the cable companies Congress intended to cover with the Transmit Clause, which took signals off the air and retransmitted them to the public without authority or payment," Dish attorney E. Joshua Rosenkranz wrote (PDF) to the court. "Dish pays retransmission fees to Fox—Sling does not implicate pirating signals. Customers pay for the right to receive works, with Fox’s authorization, and do receive them at home before sending them to themselves."
Old 06-30-14, 08:12 AM
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Re: Federal court bans Aereo streaming in 6 states

Originally Posted by DVD Polizei
I don't think they do. They'd rather keep their current flock of sheep and gradually increase their rates, year after year after year.
Broadcast Networks definitely want more people watching them, but it's a losing battle. They've been losing viewers for decades.

Part of it is that they want more measured eyeballs, since their advertising revenue depends on ratings, and I don't think Nielson was monitoring Aereo usage. Also, I'm guessing most Aereo users were using the included DVR service than not, which makes them less valuable viewers.

However, the real reason is that Broadcast networks have gotten used to the rebroadcast fees that cable companies paid, and if Aereo had argued for a successful loophole to the rebroadcast fee, then it's possible cable companies would've as well. It should be noted that while there have been blackout periods, there hasn't been a situation where a Broadcast network has been dropped from a cable service permanently. Broadcast networks know they need the eyeballs of cable; but they know that they can also get money from the cable company as well, so it's a push and pull when negotiating new rebroadcast rates.

Originally Posted by printerati
Dish's service is closer to Comcast's network DVR service, which has already been deemed legal, since Comcast already pays rebroadcast rights. Dish also already pays rebroadcast rights, so the Aereo ruling (that it's like a cable company and thus has to get rebroadcast rights) really has no bearing on Dish's service.
Old 06-30-14, 02:36 PM
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Re: Federal court bans Aereo streaming in 6 states

Originally Posted by Jay G.
...the Aereo ruling (that it's like a cable company and thus has to get rebroadcast rights) really has no bearing on Dish's service.
Fox disagrees, but Dish hopes you're right.
Old 06-30-14, 03:02 PM
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Re: Federal court bans Aereo streaming in 6 states

Originally Posted by printerati
Fox disagrees, but Dish hopes you're right.
Someone in the Ars comments pointed out that the Fox vs. Dish case has already been going on for years, and Fox has lost each round, but keeps appealing it. Fox is grasping at straws.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fox_Bro...h_Network,_LLC
Old 11-25-14, 03:41 PM
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Re: Federal court bans Aereo streaming in 6 states

Aereo filed for Chapter 11 this week. Here's a cut/paste from email I received today:

A little over three years ago, the team at Aereo set out to build a better television experience for the consumer. We began this journey because we were frustrated with a system that we believed was broken and no longer served the consumer. When it came to watching live television, the options were few, the products available were cumbersome and didn’t fit our increasingly mobile lifestyle, and costs were unreasonably high and rising.

With that in mind, we put our collective engineering power to work to create an online technology that was simple, useful, and compelling, and provided consumers with a true alternative to how they watch local live TV. That’s how Aereo came to life. Our engineering team created the first cloud-based, individual antenna and DVR that enabled you to record and watch live television on the device of your choice, all via the Internet. In less than two years, we went from drawings on a napkin to launching Aereo’s technology in more than a dozen cities across the country.

The enthusiasm we encountered was overwhelming. The sense of frustration consumers expressed reinforced our mission. We knew we had touched a nerve, had created something special, and had a built something meaningful for consumers.

But we encountered significant challenges from the incumbent media companies.

While we had significant victories in the federal district courts in New York and Boston and the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, the reversal of the Second Circuit decision in June by the U.S. Supreme Court has proven difficult to overcome. The U.S. Supreme Court decision effectively changed the laws that had governed Aereo’s technology, creating regulatory and legal uncertainty. And while our team has focused its energies on exploring every path forward available to us, without that clarity, the challenges have proven too difficult to overcome.

Accordingly, today, we filed for Chapter 11 reorganization proceedings. We also appointed Lawton Bloom of Argus to serve as Aereo’s Chief Restructuring Officer during this period.

Chapter 11 will permit Aereo to maximize the value of its business and assets without the extensive cost and distraction of defending drawn out litigation in several courts.

We have traveled a long and challenging road. We stayed true to our mission and we believe that we have played a significant part in pushing the conversation forward, helping force positive change in the industry for consumers. We feel incredibly lucky to have had the opportunity to build something as meaningful and special as Aereo. With so many shifts and advances in technology, there has never been a more perfect time to take risks, challenge the status quo and build something special.

Thank you for all of your support. Your emails, tweets, Facebook posts and letters have meant the world to us. We are incredibly grateful to have gone on this journey together.
Old 02-27-15, 01:25 PM
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Re: Federal court bans Aereo streaming in 6 states

Aereo auction brings in less than $2 million. TiVo acquired their trademarks, domain names, and customer lists for $1 million.

Aereo Gets A Kick in the Ass(ets)

Sometimes the higher you rise, the further you fall.

Such is the case with Aereo Inc., which wrapped up an auction of its assets for a disappointing sum of less than $2 million. The result fell far short of expectations and represents an appalling return on investment for a company that secured nearly $100 million in funding over its lifetime.

At the conclusion of the auction, according to a court filing published by The Register, TiVo Inc. (Nasdaq: TIVO) walked away with the Aereo trademarks, domain names and customer lists for a total of $1 million. RPX Corp. paid $225,000 for Aereo's patents, and Alliance Technology Solutions, Inc. wrote a check for $320,000 for equipment leftovers.

Once a promising player in the over-the-top video market, Aereo has been effectively out of business since the US Supreme Court ruled against the company last June.

However, the debate that Aereo sparked over the future of over-the-top video remains. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), for example, is now considering whether OTT providers should be defined as multichannel video programming distributors, which would give streaming video companies the right to negotiate network retransmission deals the same way that cable operators do today.

The FCC also just passed its landmark net neutrality ruling. Although many of the implications of that decision are still unknown, the ruling does bring into question whether broadcasters have the right to block delivery of their content online based on deals with pay-TV providers.

Technically speaking, even if the FCC made that procedure illegal, it still wouldn't allow a company like Aereo to retransmit content over the web without programmer permission. But the discussion does get at the same central issue that Aereo addressed: whether TV that's free over the air should also be free on the web.

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