Aereo’s Streaming TV Service & Why It Is Definitely Not A Favorite With Cable Companies

Aereo is a company that streams basic TV content to subscribers* from its servers to any mobile device a subscriber owns. Aereo does this by actually having a tiny antenna and DVR assigned to each customer and this allows customers to watch video content on any Internet connecting device they have at any time. The company gets those over the air signals that you have also traditionally been able to use to tune in via a TV antenna attached to your TV– ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox & PBS – and then sends the HD signals they receive to the miniature antenna & DVR combo set assigned to each customer and then the customer is allowed to watch any TV content from those networks on any of his or her Internet connecting devices. So the customer then has the ability to watch any shows played on those networks at any time for a small subscription fee that actually starts at a dollar a day for a day pass and then goes up in price to a maximum of $80 for an annual subscription to the service.

And needless to say the fact that consumers can pay $80 a year to receive HD reception for all the content on ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox & PBS when cable companies would like them to pay that amount or more each month for one of their cable bundles of channels – is not going over well with those cable companies. In fact last year Aereo won a court case that broadcasters in Manhattan had brought against the company – the first legal hurdle but certainly not the last as the cable industry tries its best to hang on to its outdated, but profitable, bundled channel subscriptions business model.

Aereo’s CEO Chet Kanojia who has worked in the cable industry for years talks a great talk about the service as the expression goes! He has discussed in an interview why the Aereo service is A. Legal and B. Why it is the future of TV in that it allows customers to watch TV when and where they want and a reasonable price without forcing those customers to pay through the proverbial nose for a bundle of TV Channels most of which they aren’t interested in watching.

Here’s a link to a Gigaom article, titled Aereo’s big bet to break the TV industry: CEO Chet Kanojia explains, which features an interview with Mr. Kanojia and some more in-depth back ground info on the Aereo service:

http://gigaom.com/2013/02/07/aereos-big-bet-to-break-the-tv-industry-ceo-chet-kanojia-explains/

And a second article on the subject from CNN titled Aereo: Streaming TV startup at center of media storm:

http://money.cnn.com/2013/02/07/technology/innovation/aereo/

And a third link is to the Aereo website just in case you’d like to read more information from the horse’s mouth itself – as the expression goes!

https://aereo.com/how-it-works

Have a great day!

Linda R.

*Right now the Aereo service is only available in New York City, where it debut last year. It is coming to 22 more cities in the U.S. shortly.

References

How it Works. (Accessed 2013, February 7). Aereo. Online. 

Pepitone, Julianne. (2013, February 7). Aereo: Streaming TV startup at center of media storm. CNN. Online.

Roberts, Jeff John. (2013, February 7). Aereo’s big bet to break the TV industry: CEO Chet Kanojia explains. Gigaom. Online