14 DAY TRIAL // Aereo is getting ready to face the Supreme Court on April 22, and the ruling that will be made by the judges will decide the future of the company.
A favorable response will probably change the way Americans watch TV content, while a negative response will most likely be the end of the company.
Aereo allows subscribers to view live TV, as well as time-shifted streams of broadcasted television shows on Internet connected devices with the help of antennas. As expected, big TV networks are none too happy with the company, have demanded retribution for the content, and have taken Aereo to court on several occasions so far. Furthermore, they claim that Aereo’s business model undermines the cable retransmission fees and the size of their audience.
For its part, Aereo argues that it does not have to pay a dime and that its business is perfectly legal. After all, the company simply provides tiny antennas attached to Over-the-Air TV tuners, which are remotely assigned to subscribers. The broadcast content is recorded to remote DVRs controlled by subscribers.
Courts have so far been divided over who’s right in this entire story. Given the newness of the service offered by Aereo, there’s no precedent to act as guide.
After going to court over the same issue one too many times, the company agreed with broadcasters that the issue needed to be taken up to the Supreme Court, so that a decision is made once and for all. The demand was made back in October 2013, but the answer came in January, along with a set date for the proceedings.
As mentioned, the stake of the case is quite high not only for the companies involved, but also for the way content is consumed in the United States. Judging by Aereo’s popularity, it’s rather clear that people want to be able to access content over the Internet, and most often than not that’s not possible.
The truth is that there’s a need for change in how traditional broadcasters handle this issue that they’ve been ignoring for so long. For its part, CBS has announced that even if Aereo wins, it will probably start to distribute its content over the Internet, possibly in another effort to damage Aereo’s success.
Even if Aereo doesn’t win the Supreme Court case, the broadcaster industry will most likely start migrating to the Cloud in the coming years.