Tuesday April 3, 2012 – Greg Scoblete
Terrestrial TV isn't the most exciting technology in the world, but it is one that enjoys broad government support. And with the increasing penetration of broadband Internet (both wired and wireless), perhaps some cyber cachet can finally rub off on over-the-air broadcasts.
A startup called Aereo has made a first pass at this, delivering terrestrial channels to users via the Internet. The service, launched only in New York initially, uses an array of small antennas to collect the over-the-air signals, which are then fed to consumers over the web. For $12 a month, consumers can access their live, terrestrial TV channels on any Internet-connected device, including tablets, media players, Smart TVs and phones. They can also use a "Cloud DVR" to record those live shows for later viewing.
It is an intriguing idea and, perhaps inevitably, one that immediately provoked a lawsuit from local New York stations claiming that copyright laws do not permit Aereo to retransmit (and profit from) their broadcasts without a license. Aereo countered that they are, in a sense, just making it easier for consumers to get OTA content. Rather than place an antenna on top of their roof, Aereo places that small antenna in their own array and feeds the signal to subscribers via the Internet. In a company blog post, the firm defended their service:
"Consumers are legally entitled to access broadcast television via an antenna and they are entitled to record television content for their personal use. Innovations in technology over time, from digital signals to Digital Video Recorders (“DVRs”), have made access to television easier and better for consumers. Aereo provides technology that enables consumers to use their cloud DVR and their remote antenna to record and watch the broadcast television signal to which they are entitled anywhere they are, whether on a phone, a tablet, a television or a laptop."
The precedent doesn't exactly bode well for Aero. A similar gambit was attempted by ivi TV, which promised to send broadcast content over the Internet to subscribers for just $4.99 a month until it was slapped with an injunction and effectively shut down.
While the lawyers battle this one, the Aereo approach does highlight one intriguing possibility for over-the-air content to merge with over-the-top content (forming the mother of all acronyms: OTA OTT). Rather than attempt to install an antenna and mess with channel scanning, free-to-air broadcasts could be fed to consumers via an app on an internet-connected TV or set-top box. This not only provides broadcasters with a way to reach consumers on mobile devices but also adds value-added services like cloud DVRs to the mix. As broadband Internet and connected devices spread, the opportunity seems ripe (it could also potentially reap spectrum efficiency benefits as well).
The most obvious place for an OTA OTT service to start would be in the United Kingdom where a consortium of broadcasters has already teamed to promote Freeview - the UK's well-established terrestrial TV service. Today, Freeview TV is accessed via terrestrial tuners sold in TVs and set top boxes, but it's not hard to see an Aereo-style variant delivering Freeview TV to any Internet-connected device through an app. It won't make antenna salespeople happy, but those of us with a fear of heights would be grateful.
