# Streaming startup Aereo wins round one in Court battle



## sledgehammer1367066128 (Jun 19, 2011)

> Wed Jul 11, 2012 6:52pm EDT
> 
> (Reuters) - A federal judge has rejected a bid by major U.S. broadcasters to stop Aereo Inc, an online television venture backed by billionaire Barry Diller, to stop rebroadcasting some of its programming over the Internet.
> U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan said on Wednesday that while the broadcasters demonstrated they faced irreparable financial damage if were the venture were allowed to continue, Aereo also showed it would face severe harm if the requested preliminary injunction were granted.
> ...


Continued: http://www.reuters.c...E86A1D420120711


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## oldschoolecw (Jan 25, 2007)

This is AWESOME news
And you would think that the increased viewership would lead to more advertising revenue, what is wrong with these networks?


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## sledgehammer1367066128 (Jun 19, 2011)

And Round Two ......



> A federal appeals court in New York on Monday upheld a ruling in favor of Aereo, the start-up Internet service that streams broadcast stations without compensation, setting the stage for a full-blown trial between Aereo and major media companies.
> 
> In a 2-to-1 ruling, the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit found that Aereoâ€™s streams of TV shows to individual subscribers did not constitute â€œpublic performances,â€ and thus the broadcastersâ€™ copyright infringement lawsuits against the service â€œare not likely to prevail on the merits.â€


As for Rounds Three, Four, Five ......



> But the broadcasters said they were confident they would prevail, whether through a trial or an appeal to the Supreme Court. While they have lost in New Yorkâ€™s federal courts so far, they say they are heartened by a victory in December in Federal District Court in Los Angeles against an Aereo-like service named Aereokiller, backed by the billionaire Alkiviades David.
> 
> CBS alluded to that ruling when it said in a statement, â€œAs the courts continue to consider this case and others like it, we are confident that the rights of content owners will be recognized, and that we will prevail.â€
> 
> A group of other broadcasters, including Fox and PBS, said they intended to move toward a trial. â€œTodayâ€™s decision is a loss for the entire creative community,â€ the group said in a statement. â€œThe court has ruled that it is O.K. to steal copyrighted material and retransmit it without compensation. While we are disappointed with this decision, we have and are considering our options to protect our programming.â€


http://www.nytimes.c...st-tv.html?_r=0


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## sledgehammer1367066128 (Jun 19, 2011)

> That may sound like a doomsday scenario, but itâ€™s happening, says Garth Ancier, a former top-level executive at NBC, Fox and WB. A Reuters story about the threats posed by Aereo and Dish Networkâ€™s ad-skipping Hopper DVR to the broadcast business model quoted Ancier making the claim that two of the Big Four networks â€" ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox â€" have for months been evaluating whether they might be better off becoming, in effect, cable channels.





> â€œI know two that are talking about it,â€ he says, leaving open the possibility that the others might be as well. He declines to specify which, saying heâ€™d heard it in a â€œtalking over coffeeâ€ setting and didnâ€™t want to betray a confidence. (Apparently Fox is one of them, though: Bloomberg reports News Corp. chief operating officer Chasey Carey told an audience at the National Association of Broadcasters conference the network will go cable-only if it loses its bid to stop Aereo.)


http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffbercovici/2013/04/08/holy-cow-two-of-the-big-four-tv-networks-are-considering-going-off-the-air/


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## SayWhat? (Jun 7, 2009)

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-16/u-s-appeals-court-denies-tv-networks-bid-to-re-hear-aereo-case.html



> The broadcast television networks, which failed to persuade a panel of federal appeals judges to shut down the Barry Diller-backed online TV service Aereo Inc., lost a bid to have the case reheard by the full appellate court.
> 
> The U.S. Court of Appeals in New York found in a 2-1 ruling in April that Aereo doesn't violate the networks' copyrights for programs because its transmissions to subscribers aren't public performances, which would require a license. In a filing today, the appeals court said it won't review the case.
> 
> "An active judge of the court requested a poll on whether to rehear the case," the appeals court said in its order. "A poll having been conducted and there being no majority favoring in banc review, rehearing in banc is hereby denied."


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## Athlon646464 (Feb 23, 2007)

Aereo Spat Could Prompt Fox Supreme Court Challenge

A New York federal appeals court has denied a bid by the major TV broadcasters to shut down New York-based tech startup Aereo, which picks up free, over-the-air TV signals and streams them onto the Internet

A New York federal appeals court has denied a bid by the major TV broadcasters to shut down New York-based tech startup Aereo, which picks up free, over-the-air TV signals and streams them onto the Internet. On Tuesday, the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals declined to revisit an April ruling in which a three-judge panel refused to issue an injunction halting the service.

More Here


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## Gloria_Chavez (Aug 11, 2008)

Network affiliates received a natural resource, radiospectrum, contingent upon fulfilling certain obligations.

Were they to become cable channels, they would immediately have to return the spectrum to the federal government, without compensation.

Value of radiospectrum used for OTA TV in the USA?

Conservatively, I'd say about 50B.

Will networks walk away from 50B?


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## Laxguy (Dec 2, 2010)

Well, no, but your rhetorical questions indicate you may have a more formed opinion than what you just expressed.


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## nock.nock (Jul 17, 2013)

Gloria_Chavez said:


> Network affiliates received a natural resource, radiospectrum, contingent upon fulfilling certain obligations.
> 
> Were they to become cable channels, they would immediately have to return the spectrum to the federal government, without compensation.
> Value of radiospectrum used for OTA TV in the USA?
> ...


Time to educate the masses

you recall a month or so the German Government expressed outrage over the data collection done on all Americans and said they did not do it to their own people, then fast forward a month and it is further learned that not only does the German govermnment do the same thing to their people, they get data from the USA program as well

that relates to this AEREO decice because FOX and all of the OTA networks are doing the same thing -

feiging anger over AEREO cause they act like they are loosing revenue - when the truth is they want to go CABLE (since they will pick up millions more customers with montly bills) and they need an excuse that the sheeple will fall for and AERO fits that bill


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## KyL416 (Nov 11, 2005)

The problem is Aereo is flat out lying about the technology behind their product which they are using as an excuse to evade the regulations that apply to cable and satellite. They are doing nothing but jaming those micro antennas together and forming a giant antenna bay and connecting it to a set of ATSC tuners. There is no unique antenna, server and stream for each user. The jumbled mess that would create if that were true (a dedicated line from an antenna to a dedicated ATSC tuner to a dedicated server as well as all the power cords to power them) would never pass an inspection. I was able to access multiple stations at the same time just by looking at the media cache file on my iOS device, the only thing unique is the authorization code, all of them all point to the same streaming servers and publishing points. The delay when starting a stream where they claim they are prepping an antenna for use is nothing but a javascript delay. Their location check is a joke too, they aren't using IP detection, they are using geo location which is very easy to spoof.

They are essentially operating a CATV service so they should be subject to the same regulations when it comes to must carry and retransmission consent. Along with public safety regulations like passing local EAS alerts. With NYC they could get away with just relying on the locals when they were limited to the 5 boroughs, but now since they expanded to the entire market along with adding non OTA channels like Bloomberg, they would have to show specific county alerts. There's also the accessibility act that went into effect last year which requires the broadcast stations and cable and satellite providers in the top 25 markets to carry the SAP feed that now has descriptive audio for the blind. They might be exempt from the PEG rules like satellite.

It also opens up a giant can of worms when it comes to league rights. In some cases station's couldn't grant them streaming rights for all their content even if they wanted to. For example the NFL has an exclusive mobile rights deal with Verizion, which is why Watch ESPN has to blackout Monday Night Football on mobile phones. Not only would Aereo let you bypass this restriction, with location spoofing you won't need Sunday Ticket, just change your location and you can get the game you want anywhere. MLB rules do not allow stations that stream their news online to show MLB highlights on the live stream. Until ESPN made their new deal with MLB, whenever SportsCenter had MLB highlights the video would blur on Watch ESPN. Even ABC's new Watch ABC can't carry everything and has replacement programming during some syndicated shows.


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## SayWhat? (Jun 7, 2009)

KyL416 said:


> It also opens up a giant can of worms when it comes to league rights. For example the NFL has an exclusive mobile rights deal with Verizion, which is why Watch ESPN has to blackout Monday Night Football on mobile phones. Not only would Aereo let you bypass this restriction, with location spoofing you won't need Sunday Ticket, just change your location and you can get the game you want anywhere.


'League rights' are a big part of why subscription TV is so expensive. Knocking them down or bypassing them is fine with me.


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