Aereo, everyone’s favorite rebel source for online broadcast TV, will soon move into yet another market, launching in the Denver metro area on November 4th. Reported by Advanced Television, the latest region to host Aereo’s services spans 67 counties in three states, including Colorado, Nebraska, and Wyoming.
For those unfamiliar, Aereo provides its users online access to broadcast TV via tiny antennae, rented out for a monthly fee starting at $8/month. The company has been operating under the resentful gaze of both local and national broadcast companies since its inception due to the fact that it pays no licensing fees for the content it makes available online, claiming that its service is a legal private performance which requires no licensing. Broadcasters, ranging from local networks to Fox and even PBS, have claimed otherwise, issuing a barrage of legal assaults on the company, including a recent petition to the Supreme Court to have the service shuttered permanently.
Aereo, meanwhile, maintains its legal innocence, leveraging a victory in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals of New York to stay open for business. The company has been expanding its reach further across the continental U.S. since its founding in early 2012, with service available in the metropolitan areas of Boston, New York, Salt Lake City, Miami, Houston, Dallas, Detroit, and now Denver.
The outcome of the media drama between the two sides remains to be seen, but as Aereo continues to thumb its nose at the Lords of TV – who claim billions of dollars of content is on the line – a showdown in the highest court in the land seems inevitable.
