Aereo Launching in Miami, Houston, and Dallas in September

Aereo is continuing to push forward with city rollouts for its awesome streaming TV service. The company announced that Miami, Houston, and Dallas are going live in September. Miami is going first on September 2nd, Houston second on September 16th, and then Dallas is last on September 23rd. The legal battle surrounding Aereo is still going against networks, but I think the networks got the picture that Aereo was here to stay when Time Warner Cable was recommending to its users to go to Aereo to watch CBS. Aereo is currently running out of Atlanta, Boston, and New York City. In addition to Miami, Houston, and Dallas, Aereo is also launching in Chicago on September 13th. September is looking like a very busy month for Aereo.

CBS Bars ALL TWC Internet Users, Even if they have DirecTV for TV Service

As Time Warner Cable and CBS continue to squabble over retransmission fees, DirecTV has entered the battle as well. The company said in a statement that it was appalled that CBS was blocking full episodes of its TV shows on its website for TWC internet customers. This is a blanket block, even if the user doesn't use TWC for their TV, the block still applies. And, just to aggravate CBS, DirecTV compared the current situation to the premise of the popular show, Under The Dome.

"Just like the characters in CBS' Under The Dome, all pay TV customers are feeling trapped and helpless as broadcasters expect them to absorb ridiculous rate increases for the exact same programming," it said. "We applaud Time Warner Cable for fighting back against exorbitant programming cost increases." Time Warner and CBS have been unable to resolve retransmission fee issues for CBS, Showtime, and other network channels. Time Warner Cable has been whining that CBS is asking them to pay an "outrageous increase".

The two companies have run over many deadlines, and are still fighting over terms. Basically, the idea of a new retransmission deal is pretty far fetched. Competitors to Time Warner Cable are benefiting from this enormously. DirecTV, a popular satellite TV provider, benefits from low retransmission fees, and Aereo, a startup who is trying to up root the TV industry, pays no retransmission fees at all.

Aereo to Launch in Utah and Chicago

Aereo's mission to deliver low-cost remote antenna HD television is really taking off. After launching in New York, Boston, and Atlanta, Chicago and Utah are next up on tap. Chicago will go live on September 13, covering 19 counties in the Indiana and Illinois area. The state of Utah will go live on August 13. There will be no specialized pricing for Chicago, the normal prices will continue. Look below to see if your county is lucky enough to get Aereo.

INDIANA

• Jasper


• La Porte


• Lake


• Newton


• Porter

Illinois

• Cook


• DeKalb


• DuPage


• Grundy


• Kane


• Kankakee


• Kendall


• La Salle


• Lake


• McHenry


• Will

 

Aereo is Launching in Boston

Boston is getting some good news this week: they are the next in line to receive Aereo. The service will be available starting on May 15 for pre-registered users. It will become available to the general public on May 30. The growing over the air TV company is looking to expand to 21 additional cities by the end of the year.

The following counties will receive Aereo:

• Massachusetts: Barnstable, Dukes, Essex, Middlesex, Nantucket, Norfolk, Plymouth, Suffolk, Worcester


• New Hampshire: Belknap, Cheshire, Hillsborough, Merrimack, Rockingham, Strafford


• Vermont: Windham

Time Warner: I built a mini Aereo all by myself!

Time Warner Cable announced today that they will be pushing an update to their TWC TV app tomorrow. This will allow subscribers to watch live TV from their iOS devices. TWC appears to be creating their own version of Aereo in house. However, this replica is very dummed down. If you aren't watching TV on your home wifi network, the number of channels you can watch takes a staggering drop. If you want to watch TV on the road, you will hit a red light. Only Verizon 3G/4G LTE customers will be able to stream live. But even that will have to wait until Quarter 4. The idea of watching live TV with real channels is coming closer; just at a snail's pace.

The Aereo Battle Intensifies

News Corporation is getting serious in its struggle to get Aereo offline; it's considering taking the signal from Fox off the air. All of the major broadcasters are peeved at Aereo. The small startup has found a small legal way to broadcast television live from over-the-air signals. This loophole in the copyright law permits Aereo to stream. However, the TV conglomerates are annoyed that Aereo, and anyone really could have, actually noticed this loophole, and took advantage of it. Fox is threatening to cut its over the air signal if Aereo doesn't shut down. And trust me, Aereo is not shutting down because big News Corp. is scared of a little startup. It's quite surprising that News Corp. is actually even putting that possibility on the table. You would think that News Corporation, one of the biggest media giants in the US, would not be threatening to shut down one of its services. Many people take advantage of over-the-air signals. Aereo just got lucky and found a good business model. News Corp. should really only be mad at itself, not at Aereo. I'm going to keep following the story, as I'm interested to see how it plays out.