broadcast TV

After Internet TV service Aereo lost its copyright fight in the U.S. Supreme Court to retransmit broadcast TV stations' signals without paying anything, it is seeking a lifeline from the FCC by asking to be defined as a paid TV service, Deadline reports. Aereo CEO Chet Kanojia is arguing his company should be defined as a "multichannel video programming distributor," so that it could negotiate deals with broadcasters.

USA Today reports on one of the most hotly anticipated decisions left for this Supreme Court term: does Aereo's streaming service of free broadcast TV violate copyright law? Broadcasters argue that Aereo should have to pay to retransmit the signals. USA Today predicts that whatever the outcome there could be more cord-cutting: a win could lead broadcasters to charge more in fees and higher prices could lead customers to cord-cutting. A win for Aereo would lead to more cord-cutting too because of the ease and cheapness steming from technological choice.

With Internet start-up Aereo and broadcast TV companies slated to go to the U.S. Supreme Court today, the case "could have important implications for Internet streaming, cloud computing, and the future of the TV industry itself," Time reports. Aereo retransmits free broadcast TV over the Internet through individual antennas dedicated to each customer. Aereo says it designed its system with those one-to-one antennas to avoid violating broadcasters' exclusive rights to publicly perform their works. But broadcasters say Aereo is freeloading on their content without having to pay retransmission fees. 

Next week, the U.S. Supreme Court will take up the copyright dispute between broadcast TV companies and Aereo, an Internet startup that streams broadcast programming online. Broadcasters have a Plan B if Aereo wins, The Wall Street Journal reports: "Plan B options under consideration range from lobbying Congress for a legislative solution to perhaps thwarting Aereo by shifting to cable transmission from broadcast. The most radical of the contingency plans is the recent suggestion from CBS Corp. CBS -0.08% Chief Executive Leslie Moonves that the company could offer its own Internet service if Aereo wins."

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear a case next month that could shape the future of broadcast TV and the contours of copyright law. Aereo, an Internet start-up that streams free broadcast TV over the Internet, argues that a ruling against it would "cripple the entire cloud industry," The Hill reports. Broadcasters argue the streaming services violates their copyrights in their programming.

TV broadcasters have gained an ally in the federal government in a U.S. Supreme Court case that could reshape the contours of copyright law and broadcast TV. Re/code reports that the Justice Department filed an amicus brief in which they argued that Aereo's transmission of free broadcast TV programming over the Internet violates copyright law. But the governmental lawyers said a ruling against Aereo wouldn't threaten technologies like cloud computing when involving the remote storage and streaming of legally acquired copies of copyrighted works, Re/code further reports.

Re/code reports that the four biggest television networks told the U.S. Supreme Court in their brief filed Monday that "Aereo, which provides broadcast TV shows to subscribers over the Internet without paying licensing fees to stations, is violating federal copyright law designed to protect content creators and distributors. Aereo has denied violating broadcasters’ copyrights through its unique  online delivery system, although the company joined broadcasters in asking the Supreme Court to review the case."

According to their brief, the networks said a win for Aereo would "'launch a race by cable and sattelite companies to develop competing methods to capture copyrighted content and re-sell it without paying for the right do so. That would give broadcasters little choice but to reconsider the quality and quantity of programs they broadcast for free over the air.'"

The Associated Press reports that a Utah judge has blocked Aereo from operating in some Western states until the U.S. Supreme Court takes up on April 22 a case over whether the Internet streaming service violates broadcasters' copyrights. The district judge said that Aereo's retransmission of signals is indistinguishable from what cable companies do, and letting Aereo stay in business would "damage broadcasters’ ability to negotiate with legitimate licensees, siphon viewers away from their websites and subject them to potential piracy," the AP also reports.

While the U.S. Supreme Court case over Internet streaming service Aereo's business model is pending, broadcaster Fox is seeking a preliminary junction against Aereo in the 10th Circuit, Multichannel News reports. A Utah district court will hear the request to enjoin Aereo in the six states over which the 10th Circuit has jurisdiction.

The Boston Business Journal reports that the U.S. Supreme Court has taken up the broadcasters' iteration of the legal issues in a lawsuit over whether Internet upstart Aereo's transmission of free broadcast TV through its Internet streaming services is copyright infringement. The issue, as drafted by the broadcasters, is being framed as "whether a company 'publicly performs' a copyrighted television program when it retransmits a broadcast of that program to thousands of paid subscribers over the Internet."

Aereo framed the issue as "whether Aereo 'perform[s] publicly,' under Sections 101 and 106 of the Copyright Act, by supplying remote equipment that allows a consumer to tune an individual, remotely located antenna to a publicly accessible, over-the-air broadcast television signal, use a remote digital video recorder to make a personal recording from that signal, and then watch that recording."