Aereo Subscribers Loyal Even As Service Shuts Down With Little Warning

Aereo subscribers had little time Saturday morning to access content from their personal DVRs, after being told in an email (we received ours at 10:15 a.m.) from CEO Chet Kanojia that the service would shut down at 11:30 a.m. EDT. Subscribers will be refunded their last paid month of service, he said.

The short notice prompted one user to post on Aereo’s Facebook page that it’s “not the act of a company [that purports to be] ‘for the consumers’ to give 182 minutes’ notice of cessation of all services.” If that announcement had gone out Wednesday evening, he reasoned, “Subscribers would have had an opportunity to view all or a great part of recorded programs.” He asked Aereo to consider the possibility of giving users access to the programs they have on their cloud-based DVRs. Calling Aereo’s response to the ruling “inconsistent and uncaring,” the subscriber said a blackout implemented immediately following the decision “would have been understandable.” If Aereo could extend DVR services three days, he said, “you can extend them 30 days.” Our reply email to Kanojia’s address about access to DVR content wasn’t immediately answered.

The overwhelming tone on Aereo’s Facebook page in response to the letter reflected strong support for the company, along with disdain for cable companies and broadcasters and disappointment in the Supreme Court decision last Wednesday that went against Aereo (CED June 26 p1).

Among the Aereo loyalists who commented on pricing, one said she'd “gladly pay more” if Aereo restructured and paid broadcasters. One said, “I don’t want my money back” in reference to Kanojia’s letter that said members would receive refunds for their last paid month, saying he was going to write advertisers in protest. Another asked how much more Aereo service would cost if the company paid retransmission fees, saying he isn’t able to get CBS and ABC stations without “paying big bucks for cable.” One encouraged Aereo to raise prices $3 per month and “pay off the crooks."

Anti-cable sentiment ran high on the Aereo Facebook page as customers bashed basic cable as an alternative for receiving local TV channels. Several people said they'd rather pay Aereo than the local cable company. One said the cable industry “was itself once considered a disruptive technology.” A Fort Worth, Texas, resident said Charter Communications “doesn’t even sell basic cable anymore in Fort Worth.” She’s unable to receive a digital signal over the air and refuses to pay $70 a month for cable “for the few things we watch,” she said.

There were calls to revisit legislation. An Aereo customer said it’s “time to update the Copyright Act of 1976, which never envisioned the Internet.” She urged Aereo to tell its subscribers how they can “help restore our First Amendment rights. Cable companies “control what we can and can’t see,” she said.

Kanojia’s subscriber letter said the case has been “returned to the lower Court,” and Aereo has decided to “pause operations temporarily” as it consults with the court “and map out our next steps.” Kanojia repeated Aereo’s stance that the spectrum that the broadcasters use to transmit over-the-air programming “belongs to the American public and we believe you should have a right to access that live programming whether your antenna sits on the roof of your home, on top of your television or in the cloud.” He encouraged the Aereo community to keep its voices heard and sign up for updates at ProtectMyAntenna.org. “Our journey is far from done,” he said.

As for industry reaction to the Aereo shutdown, CEA President Gary Shapiro, in an email Monday, said the news was “sad.” Of Aereo and its stated plans to “temporarily” suspend the business, Shapiro said: “I assume they are trying to figure out whether they should proceed with a time delayed service.” Aereo representatives didn’t immediately comment. A day after the Supreme Court ruling, Shapiro described the battle between Aereo and the TV networks as an epic David vs. Goliath fight that David lost amid a big public relations onslaught from the content and broadcast industries (CED June 27 p1).

NAB reaction to the Aereo news was hardly gleeful, but “the Supreme Court has quite definitively spoken on the legitimacy of Mr. Kanojia’s business model,” said spokesman Dennis Wharton in an email Monday. “We respect its verdict. It is important to note that plenty of broadcasters are legally offering on-line, Aereo-like services to the public.” Individual broadcast networks offer streaming services, and “collectively, several networks created Hulu,” Wharton said.

TV stations remain “the most popular on-line destination websites for local news and public affairs programming in most communities,” Wharton said. “The difference between our on-line business model and Aereo’s is that broadcasters did it the legal way. We secured rights to programming legally, while Aereo took the option of playing by its own set of rules, taking content it did not own, and reselling that without the permission of the content holder.” Though Aereo’s backers have called the company an innovator, “one could argue that Aereo’s business model is the antithesis of ‘innovation,'” Wharton said. “Rather, Aereo used clever lawyers to exploit a perceived loophole in the copyright law. Fortunately for content creators and for a local TV business model that is available free of charge to every American, the Supreme Court saw through the Aereo ruse and ruled in favor of broadcasters."

Antenna makers wasted little time in trying to exploit Aereo’s demise for their own commercial gain. Voxx Accessories, which markets RCA-branded antennas, sent out promotional emails with the subject line: “You Are an Aereo Subscriber, Now What?” The Supreme Court ruling leaves Aereo subscribers “unsure of how Aereo will evolve to continue in new form,” the company said Monday. That leaves subscribers “looking for solutions to continue accessing broadcast content without the burden of monthly cable bills,” it said. “Many cord cutters who relied on Aereo monthly plans to receive their favorite broadcast channels are wondering where they will turn to get their favorite shows, news and sporting events, and we're happy to offer a range of antenna solutions to ensure they will continue to be able to access this content,” said Voxx Accessories President David Geise.