Two Networks Are Considering Pulling Their Broadcasts Off the Air Because of Aereo Antenna Farms

Besides Dish Network's ad-skipping Hopper DVR, there is a new threat to over-the-air television. Aereo. Aereo is a technology company based in New York City that allows subscribers to view live and time-shifted streams of over-the-air television on Internet-connected devices.

TV networks so far have been unable to get an injunction on the service.

Since October 2012, Aereo can be installed on Mac & PC using a compatible browser, and iOS devices including the iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch or Apple TV (2nd & 3rd Gen) via AirPlay.
A Roku video player can be used when one of the Apple mobile devices is also present.

As of April 2013, Aereo is only available in New York. The company has announced that it is coming soon to Chicago.

And now there is a threat to Aereo. It's called Filmon.com, which is already available in Chicago. Filmon.com includes CBS, NBC, ABC, CW and Fox.

Both services use antenna farms. Aereo is able to provide this service by leasing to each user an individual remote antenna. Thousands of them are stored in a data center in Brooklyn where it also houses its data servers.

FilmOn is an Internet based television provider owned by FilmOn.TV Networks Inc. FilmOn.TV Networks was founded by Alki David in 2006. FilmOn and Alki David have been involved in several legal issues over programming including the carriage of major U.S. broadcast channels, such as CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox. The legal issues resulted in requiring FilmOn to drop these channels in 2011, only to return in 2012 after appeals were lodged in Federal Court and FIlmOn launched its FilmOn Air X antenna farm.

News Corp President Chase Carey has mentioned the possibility that the media company could convert its Fox broadcast network "to a pay channel" to prevent its content being "stolen" by Aereo, he said, "is pirating our broadcast signal."

Another over the air network channel is also considering shutting down their over the air system and going "all cable."

See also ...

aereo.com

filmon.com