Barry Diller's streaming video service Aereo continues to win its courtroom victories. Last year, a federal judge in New York rejected TV networks' request to prohibit the service from launching its new video-on-demand offering. Today the Second Circuit Court of Appeals has declined to issue an injunction that would have shut down Aereo, the streaming service that delivers broadcast signals to customers willing to pay $8 a month. Meanwhile, according to the Wall Street Journal, the company is bolstering its programming with ATnT, which is talking about packaging high speed Internet service with Aereo’s programming and Dish Network is looking at ways to use Aereo as a way of offering low-cost programing packages to its customers.
“Today’s decision from the Second Circuit Court of Appeals again validates that Aereo’s technology falls squarely within the law and that’s a great thing for consumers who want more choice and flexibility in how, when and where they can watch television,” said Chet Kanojia, Aereo CEO and Founder. “The ruling to uphold Judge Nathan’s decision sends a powerful message that consumer access to free-to-air broadcast television is still meaningful in this country and that the promise and commitment made by the broadcasters to program in the public interest in exchange for the public’s spectrum, remains an important part of our American fabric.”
Broadcasters have argued Aereo violates copyright rules by streaming over-the-air signals to customers so the court decision is a major set-back. Moreover, other pay TV distributors could be prompted to create similar services to avoid paying broadcasters retransmission consent fees. In the U.S. almost $2 billion dollars were paid by TV distributors last year for broadcast programming, up 33% over the prior year according to SNL Kagan. More: Deadline 04/01 - Aereo Exploring Alliances With Pay TV Distributors: WSJ Also See: SMM Post from 1/13/13 – Aereo: An Industry Disrupter!
UPDATE 04/03/13 - In a surprising move given
ongoing legal challenges between the respective services, FilmOn.TV founder and
CEO Alki David – the billionaire media entrepreneur – has congratulated the
legal team at Internet TV streaming service Aereo on what he describes as its
“hugely significant” win in court against the Major Networks… More: AdvancedTelevision 4/03 - FilmOn welcomes Aereo ruling
Can Intel, best known for its computer processing chips succeed where Apple and Google couldn't? The company is said to be in discussions with Time Warner, NBC-Universal, News Corp, Viacom and others to obtain TV shows and films in preparation for the launch for its upcoming online pay-tv service. Intel’s Erik Huggers (see 2/16 post - Erik Hugger’s Intel Plans), well-known to European players for his work at the BBC, Microsoft and at Endemol, confirmed Intel’s overall plans in February and although he was vague about his programming plans it now seems that those discussions are advancing. He is betting that Intel can create a more flexible service (unbundled networks), delivered through consumers’ broadband accounts, that gives subscribers more choices over the channels they receive and offers an easier-to-use electronic programming guide. More power to them if they can do it. Perhaps the timing was just not right for their predecessors! 3/26 Bloomberg - Intel Said to Be Nearing Media Deals for Pay-TV Service
Streaming video provider Roku is currently testing a second-screen application for tablets that the company hopes to release in the "near term," according to Ed Lee, vice president of content acquisition for Roku. He stated in a presentation at this week's OTTCON conference that the company is "thinking about the second screen quite a bit." He declined to provide specifics on the Roku's plans for the product, but said it would work on Roku owners' tablets and allow them to obtain additional information on the content they watch via their Roku device.
“We're evaluating it right now,” Lee said of the tablet application. “It's certainly coming in the near term.
More at: Media-Saver Tech Blog - Roku planning second-screen tablet app
Yes it’s that time of year again when college basketball captures the imagination of the country, brackets are filled out, brackets are busted, and fans everywhere are tuning in to all the excitement. With 68 teams, seven rounds, and 67 games, it’s no surprise that one screen just isn’t enough. Last year March Madness accounted for over two million tweets and Comscore reported that Turner Digital and CBSSports.com drew 20,012,000 and 15,938,000 million unique visitors.
No doubt those are all records that are about to be broken because CBS and Turner Sports relaunched the latest iteration of the NCAA March Madness Live App today. In addition to the app’s availability through the App Store and Google Play platforms, fans can access this content online via the ncaa.commarchmadness, CBSSports.com, and bleacherreport.com websites. The major features comprise: full game replays, real-time game alerts, video highlights, real-time tournament brackets, and personal channel lineup facets, and live radio broadcast.
Hear and see all about it right from Turner Sports and CBS executives as they discuss their multiscreen coverage plans for the "March Madness" NCAA men's college basketball tournament: MCN Original Video -- CBS, Turner Sports Ready For 'March Madness' or better yet, get the app: Apple or Android
UPDATE 03/26 - Apparently I wasn't the only one that love's this year’s app. I found that I was so impressed with it that many times it was acting as my primary screen as I quickly switched between games in the second and third rounds. As linear TV coverage produced the best Nielsen numbers for the first week of the tournament in 20 years, the digital presentation of NCAA March Madness Live was also setting new all-time highs through the tournament’s first week, generating 36.6 million live video streams across online and mobile, (tablets and smartphones), double the 18.3 million for the entire event in 2012, according to Turner digital officials. That equated to than 10 million hours of live video consumed across digital properties during the opening week of the tournament, up 198% from 2012.
