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Aereo is coming to Dallas

I have researching their service and I think it will do well in D/FW area.

You pay between $8 and $12 for Aeveo to store a program via a cloud service to watch on a portable device.

Personally, I will jump on it as soon as it is available.

What are some of your thoughts about the service?
 
Highly controversial. They are being sued by everyone over charging for signals they don't pay for. So far they have won in court, but I am not sure that will last. If they lose, they will go away. If they win, the networks will stop broadcasting their best stuff.

I am also not sure there's enough demand for this to be successful.
 
Essentially, Aereo has an individual antenna for every user, which is what the courts have said makes it legal. Of course, it's possible another court will see things differently, and the lawsuits are bound to continue. So, it's good while supplies last.

Also, yes, it is indeed possible that the big content providers will start moving their most popular content to cable and other methods of distribution because they're unhappy with this approach. From what I've read, they're less concerned about Aereo than they are with cable companies adopting a similar model to avoid paying retrans fees. If the issue had already been settled, you'd have to think the CBS/Time Warner battle would've gone a lot differently.
 
Kent said:
Essentially, Aereo has an individual antenna for every user, which is what the courts have said makes it legal. Of course, it's possible another court will see things differently, and the lawsuits are bound to continue. So, it's good while supplies last.

Not exactly. What they're touting is that each user will have access to an antenna. Antennas are not designated to a subscriber, nor will the subscriber necessarily use the same antenna each time. If the service does take off, I wonder what happens when someone tries to access Aereo and no antennas are free for use at the time? For example, during the Super Bowl Big Game. Aereo's business model reminds me a great deal of the setup that put Jimmy Bakker in prison for fraud.
 
dhett said:
Not exactly. What they're touting is that each user will have access to an antenna. Antennas are not designated to a subscriber, nor will the subscriber necessarily use the same antenna each time.

Yes. That's what I thought I was saying. Sorry if I didn't make that clear enough.

If the service does take off, I wonder what happens when someone tries to access Aereo and no antennas are free for use at the time? For example, during the Super Bowl Big Game. Aereo's business model reminds me a great deal of the setup that put Jimmy Bakker in prison for fraud.

So long as they have at least the same number of antennas as they do subscribers, it's not an issue. From what I read, the antennas aren't much larger than a microchip. So, they could fit millions of them into a room about the size of a broadcast rack room. Now, how they can get some of the VHF affiliates they promise on an antenna that small is beyond me, but that looked like what they were claiming to do. What got Jim Bakker was that he sold more timeshares than he had. Building another room or facility for timeshares is difficult and time consuming. Putting another set of microchips in a room isn't. It seems a bigger issue would be running out of bandwidth during a big event like the Super Bowl.
 
Kent said:
So long as they have at least the same number of antennas as they do subscribers, it's not an issue.

Agreed. However, I don't believe that they intend to. From the articles I read, they seem to be banking on not all subscribers watching at the same time. We'll see how it plays out, I guess.

Kent said:
From what I read, the antennas aren't much larger than a microchip. So, they could fit millions of them into a room about the size of a broadcast rack room. Now, how they can get some of the VHF affiliates they promise on an antenna that small is beyond me, but that looked like what they were claiming to do.

Those antennas are a puzzler to me. If they're so revolutionary, you'd think that Aereo could make a fortune selling them. However, looking at their NYC location, it seems more a function of having a location within line of sight and so close to the broadcast source that a TV could pick up the broadcasts with a paper clip for an antenna.

Kent said:
What got Jim Bakker was that he sold more timeshares than he had. Building another room or facility for timeshares is difficult and time consuming. Putting another set of microchips in a room isn't. It seems a bigger issue would be running out of bandwidth during a big event like the Super Bowl.

I guess we'll see how it plays out. For me, Aereo's claims seem to fall into that "too good to be true" category. Just doesn't pass the smell test to me.
 
You have hit upon the chief argument of the broadcasters: the claim that everyone is really using an individual antenna/tuner is too good to be true.

Aereo would lose all hint of legality the moment it was discovered that they were not renting individual antennas and tuners to each subscriber. The broadcasters don't think the rental set up is legal either, but know they would have an air-tight case against Aereo if it was discovered the whole antenna/tuner rental thing was a lie. The broadcasters believe it is nothing more than an elaborate charade to hide the fact Aereo is doing something illegal.

My suspicion is that the truth lies somewhere between the claims from Aereo of individual antennas/tuners and the belief of broadcasters that only one source is getting the signal before sending them to subscribers.

Suppose these individual antennas were essentially elements in one large antenna. Aereo would add more elements as they gained more subscribers, but would not have to worry that the reception from one dinky antenna was different from another sitting right next to it. The reception would improve as more subscribers were added. The tuners would be a function of how many could be logged in at one time. I think Aereo needs to make sure they can have all subscribers logged in at once to maintain their appearance of legalty.

Ultimately I think Aereo will lose in court. I think they're either going to find it hard to prove they are doing what they claim, or the courts will decide they can't make money off marketing access to someone else's copyrighted material without compensation. Thus far they have survived because of a 2-1 ruling of a 3 judge panel. The next step up might not see things the same way.
 
I have researching their service and I think it will do well in D/FW area.

You pay between $8 and $12 for Aeveo to store a program via a cloud service to watch on a portable device.

Personally, I will jump on it as soon as it is available.

What are some of your thoughts about the service?

I got it last night and recorde a couple of shows...worked great.
 
I have researching their service and I think it will do well in D/FW area.

You pay between $8 and $12 for Aeveo to store a program via a cloud service to watch on a portable device.

Personally, I will jump on it as soon as it is available.

What are some of your thoughts about the service?


Well it's gone.....i guess for good...
 
I have researching their service and I think it will do well in D/FW area.

You pay between $8 and $12 for Aeveo to store a program via a cloud service to watch on a portable device.

Personally, I will jump on it as soon as it is available.

What are some of your thoughts about the service?


well it's gone,hope it comes back.
 
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