14 DAY TRIAL // Aereo has given up the fight after it was formally banned from streaming live TV to devices. The company is now shutting down its Boston office.
BetaBoston reports that the company’s office will shut down next week, on November 12, and 43 people will be laid off in the process.
The publication acquired an internal email the company sent to employees, telling them that the entire business would be shutting down. While 43 of them will stop working on November 12, others will stay until the operations officially close, which may take a little while more.
“In an effort to reduce costs, we made the difficult decision to lay off some of our staff in Boston and New York. We are continuing to conserve resources while we chart our path forward. We are grateful to our employees for their loyalty, hard work and dedication. This was a difficult, but necessary step in order to preserve the company,” said Virginia Lam, VP for communications and government relations of Aereo, in a statement.
The company cites an October 23 federal court injunction that prohibits Aereo from transmitting live television as the reason behind the shutdown. Due to the legal issues, Aereo can’t attract additional funding, and therefore, won’t be able to continue operating. Of course, this was to be expected since investors want something solid before putting forward money, and Aereo’s current situation isn’t exactly ideal.
No other way to move forward
The company had hoped to be able to continue as a cable-TV provider following the Supreme Court ruling stating that its activities were violating broadcasters’ copyrights. Alas, last month, US District Judge Alison Nathan from New York decided to grant the TV networks’ request for a temporary injunction, blocking Aereo in the entire United States.
There were indications that Aereo might be able to pursue another line of business, to continue providing DVR devices, but it seems like that ship has sailed too.
Aereo is a company that debuted back in 2012, although it quickly managed to become quite controversial. They manufacture small HDTV antennas that receive broadcast channels. The content is then stored on servers from where people can access it from anywhere on the Internet, viewing content without having to buy or install any equipment.
Broadcasters have argued that Aereo’s business is illegal and that it should pay for the content it sends over to users. Aereo has defended itself saying there are plenty of people who use antennas and don’t pay cable subscriptions and that what it does isn’t much different from that.