This week the Supreme Court will hear arguments in a case that should determine the future of Aereo, an over the air delivery system for local TV signals. Here is an article from earlier this year that describes the battleground and why this is an important battle in communications history.
Summary: Aereo is the new internet service company that has CBS and Fox threatening to shut down their broadcast stations and move their TV networks to cable. But what is Aereo exactly — and why does it have TV networks in such a state?
By Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols for Networking | April 10, 2013 — 20:24 GMT (13:24 PDT)
When Chet Kanojia came up with the idea of Aereo, I’m sure he never dreamed that broadcast TV networks, such as Fox, would threaten to shutter their local stations and move their content exclusively to cable to avoid it being shared over the internet.
Aereo wants to take broadcast TV to the cloud. (Credit: John P Falcone/CNET)
Aereo, itself, is based on a very simple idea. Many people want to cut the cable cord, but find it hard to watch the major broadcast networks even with an over-the-air (OTA) antenna. Aereo takes several existing technologies and creates a packaged solution for these people.