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Saturday, November 22, 2014

Aereo Files Bankruptcy

According to the NY Times, Aereo has filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 11 ending its run as a cable TV disruptor.  The Supreme Court ruled against the Aereo business model which enabled consumers to lease remote antennas to access over the air broadcast signals, digitize, and stream them for viewership.  Shows could be recorded for later viewing or streamed live to any device.  That model proved fatal for Aereo.

As to next steps, Aereo will try to sell off its assets.  And other OTT businesses will come up with different means to capture and transmit signals by placing antennas directly at the consumers' home.  Aereo's loss was the broadcasters gain. CBS has jumped on it by creating its own OTT subscription service for viewers to stream and watch its programming.  Perhaps other broadcast networks will follow.  Still, Aereos' appeal was that it aggregated all the broadcast signals onto one platform for an easier experience.  Farewell Aereo, your business model may have been in vain but as a disruptor you sure did light a fire to change.