Aereo has had a rocky journey recently, it suspended its antenna and internet-based TV service just days after the Supreme Court ruled that it violates US copyright law. Chet Kanojia, Aereo’s CEO and founder, had pledged to fight on, and now the company has issued a letter to the lower court which argues that under the Supreme Court’s ruling, Aereo was categorized as a cable company and it is therefore entitled to a statutory license. Aereo uses a large number of tiny antennas to pick up local TV feeds and pipe it to individual subscribers over the internet, raising the ire of broadcasters who say this is illegal. The Supreme Court had held that Aereo “is for all practical purposes a traditional cable system.” Aereo is now in the process of filing the necessary statements of account and royalty fees to fight for such a license. However, the broadcasters say in the same letter that it is “astonishing” for the internet company to take such a stance.
Aereo, the video streaming service which sought to provide an alternative to traditional television broadcasters, said it believes it can still operate despite a crippling U.S. Supreme Court ruling that caused the company to suspend service, according to a court filing on Wednesday. The Supreme Court last month said Aereo violated copyright law by using tiny antennas to broadcast TV content online to paying subscribers. The decision was a victory for traditional broadcasters, such as CBS Corp, Comcast Corp’s NBC, Walt Disney Co’s ABC, and Twenty-First Century Fox Inc’s Fox. After the ruling, Aereo announced that it was suspending service, and litigation in a related case involving the company resumed in a Manhattan federal court. CBS argued in a joint filing on Wednesday that the case should be dismissed in light of the Supreme Court ruling, but Aereo disagreed. “Although Aereo has temporarily suspended operations, Aereo believes that it can still operate in accordance with the terms of the Supreme Court’s decision and intends to do so,” Aereo wrote in the filing. It is unclear from the filing how Aereo will operate, though the company argued it was entitled to a “compulsory license” to broadcasters’ content. Representatives for Aereo and CBS did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Started in 2012 and backed by Diller’s IAC/InterActiveCorp , Aereo typically charged about $8 to $12 a month, and allowed users stream live broadcasts on mobile devices. Aereo did not pay the broadcasters.
