Aereo TV Streaming Service Files For Chapter 11
Aereo may be remembered as the most highly disruptive service in the technology space that the masses couldn't find a need for. Now, it'll also be remembered as a company that couldn't battle its way beyond a brutal court decision that effectively made its core service illegal to offer. For those needing a refresher, Aereo offered up an online stream of free, over-the-air network television channels. The argument was that if these stations were given away for free using an antenna, why should it be wrong to transit that same signals using modern technology (the Internet) instead? Evidently, the court did not see it the same way.
It was an interesting component of the cord-cutting regime, and it managed to garner a lot of positive press during the three years that it was in operation. But now, its cloud-based TV streaming operation is no more. In a final blog post, Aereo notes that incumbent media companies made it nigh impossible for progress. Despite significant victories in the federal district courts in New York and Boston and the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, a damning ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court has shown to be "difficult to overcome." The U.S. Supreme Court decision effectively changed the laws that had governed Aereo’s technology, creating regulatory and legal uncertainty.
Today, the outfit is filing for Chapter 11 reorganization proceedings, which essentially marks the end of Aereo's road as a technology provider. Hopefully, in time, we'll see more meaningful change, but Aereo may one day be viewed as a company that simply embarked on its mission a bit ahead of its time.
It was an interesting component of the cord-cutting regime, and it managed to garner a lot of positive press during the three years that it was in operation. But now, its cloud-based TV streaming operation is no more. In a final blog post, Aereo notes that incumbent media companies made it nigh impossible for progress. Despite significant victories in the federal district courts in New York and Boston and the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, a damning ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court has shown to be "difficult to overcome." The U.S. Supreme Court decision effectively changed the laws that had governed Aereo’s technology, creating regulatory and legal uncertainty.
Today, the outfit is filing for Chapter 11 reorganization proceedings, which essentially marks the end of Aereo's road as a technology provider. Hopefully, in time, we'll see more meaningful change, but Aereo may one day be viewed as a company that simply embarked on its mission a bit ahead of its time.
