May 9 Podcast #634: Interview with a Broadcaster about Aereo
This week Ara spoke with a broadcaster from the Birmingham, AL area about Internet streaming upstart Aereo and his opinion on how their model is essentially to steal content from broadcasters and sell it for profit. For those who are not familiar Aereo is a company that lets you record and stream local television in the cloud. More info about Aereo available on their website.
| Download this Episode. |
Listen to the show
Today's Show:
News:
- Consumer Reports Not Impressed with Smart Home Systems
- Revolv Packages Up Automation in Smart Home Bundles
- FIFA World Cup Broadcast in 4K And . . . 8K?
- Netflix will push ahead in Ultra HD streaming
- On average, Americans get 189 cable TV channels and only watch 17
Other:
- 12 Massively Failed AV Technologies
- Everything you need to know about High-Resolution Audio, the future of music
- Great Demo Disc: Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds: Live at Radio City Music Hall [Blu-ray]
- Sony 65-Inch 4K Ultra HD TV only $3,208 (prices may change without notice)
Amazon Prime:
Sign up for Amazon Prime and enjoy:
- Free Two Day Shipping!
- Instant Streaming of TV Shows and Movies
- Instant Access to thousands of Kindle Books
- The HT Guys gratitude!
Interview with a Broadcaster about Aereo
This week Ara spoke with a broadcaster from the Birmingham, AL area about Internet streaming upstart Aereo and his opinion on how their model is essentially to steal content from broadcasters and sell it for profit. For those who are not familiar Aereo is a company that lets you record and stream local television in the cloud. More info about Aereo available on their website.
Broadcasters feel that Aereo should be considered like a cable or satellite company and pay retransmission fees. Aereo says they are renting equipment to capture free over the air content that is available to the public. The Supreme Court will hear this case which can have major impact to how we receive our entertainment in the future. Will the broadcasters take their programming off the public airways? We’ll have to see.
Reader Comments (7)
John most certainly knows about broadcasting, but he's not looking at from a legal point of view, he's looking at it from a revenue point of view, which is all the networks care about.
A typical Aereo customer would just as soon cut the cord completely, but can't because of poor OTA reception. Such people want to trade a large bill for a small one : they're not interested in 500 channels.
What if eyeballs for every viewer -- OTA, Aereo, cable, sattelie -- were measured accurately? Which customer would networks most prefer?
I'll answer my own rhetorical question: the ones they can collect on twice. First, when the service provider pays the network, and again when viewing habits are reported to their advertisers.
This is all about preserving the ratio of valued customers to "freeloaders".
Good interview. In my opinion this is more about a company finding a way to provide you channels without forcing the subscriber to pay for the bundle packages that Cable is charging . The younger generation won't pay for TV. The fact is this kind of service is coming sooner or later and the networks are fighting new technology .
First it was unbelievably generous of the HT Guys to allow me to discuss this issue from a broadcaster’s point of view. As a HT nerd I’m a huge fan and a long time listener of the show.
Second you're right! I'm not a lawyer and have no idea how this case will be decided… you’re also correct that it IS about revenue… but it’s NOT about greed. It’s about YOU.
As a LOCAL broadcaster I’m proud of the SERVICE we provide our community… I have witnessed LOCAL broadcasters ignore the safety of their own families; staying on the air protecting the families of our audience. I have seen LOCAL broadcasters sleeping on the floor; exhausted from reading public safety bulletins for HOURS. I have consoled viewers weeping in our lobby with gratitude for saving their lives. All of this provided at no charge to you.
We save lives for F-R-E-E because of the money we generate from our network affiliation.
Aereo threatens this affiliation so it also threatens your safety!!
So what you are saying is do it for the children or they will die!!!!!!
I cannot get over the air reception for 2/3 of local channel and so your response is basically spend $70 a month for cable for content I should be getting over the air. Start streaming your stations live.
I am from NH and my local stations have ALL dropped in power output since the adoption of Hdtv
I can get over the air from some stations in Boston that have enough power ,but even those stations have reduced power and I have intermittent reception (it becomes much worse with the foliage that is now appearing . I blame it on the Broadcasters for reducing their power levels,if the power levels were adequate
Aereo would not exist nor be needed.
Hey guys,
I wanted to provide you some feedback on the conversation you had with John from Alabama.
As I was listening to the conversation, I kept thinking "why isn't any one talking about the content value?" If the content is destined to be acquired for free, why are people concerned with monetizing the transport mechanism? The example of your show being retransmitted without royalties being paid to the HTGuys is a good example. Given the intended audience of your show content and the ability to freely acquire it through podcasts, how long do you think the unauthorized retransmitter will last without providing additional value (translation to other languages, etc.)? The target audience of your content will probably not tolerate a paid feed if they can get it for free, especially if you insert content on how to acquire your show for free, along with any appropriate advertisements. And, even if your show was redistributed, who do you think stands to benefit? The HYGuys! With more ears listening to your show, the HTGuys would be world famous (more so than now! :))
If the content is meant to entertain and is not meant to be free, then by all means, transmit it via a protected and controlled distribution system (cable/sat tv). There are plenty of established laws to support and protect these content and distribution systems.
Aereo is providing a unified transport conversion service (OTA to IP) and cloud based DVR, essentially moving a Tivo like experience to the cloud. The revenue generation tools (ads) are still in the content being streamed. Instead of broadcasters working on tuning their instream ads or working with Aereo to target advertisements, Aereo is being demonized by the content/broadcasters because it is not under their direct control.
Aereo is providing a service that the broadcasters should have provided years ago. Since no one stepped up to bring a cloud-based DVR (assuming broadcaster didn't want or understand how to do this), Aereo, just like all disruptive incumbents, stepped up to the challenge.
Just shotgunned this episode and next weeks in one listening and thought I would chime in.
On Active Listening:
I agree with Ara its good stuff. I set out regular time for just listening. For me even just 20 mins a day is a goal. Ideally later at night (or before I go to work) when its quiet I sit down on the couch in the dark and listen to a sufficiently long playlist set to random.
I reckon with kids a good habit of audio "me" time will lower your blood pressure and change your life. Nine times out of ten I nod off to sleep and if I do, then that short power nap is the most refreshing I can get these days. If I don't nod off I am often surprised where my thoughts take me. I am a Classical or Ambient guy (I like the audio tricks some composers use) although I defy anyone to not completely unwind with Miles Davis's "Kind of Blue".
High Res Music;
I have used Bowers "Society of Sound" (Records of the Month Model) music club and regularly dip into Linn Records (Tracks and Albums) and NAIM's (Tracks and Albums with a Scottish bias). They all have esoteric limited catalogue's. Linn has a good model because you can select your format from a range and the price of an Album at CD quality is very price competitive. They have a novel arrangement where you can buy whole harddrive collections that are really designed for their systems. Linn also has three radio streaming stations (Classical, Jazz and Contemporary). There are also the US high Res stores that tend to be a bit pricier.
But the thing about High Res is that you can always "rip down" to what your phone or tablet can play and keep the good stuff as an archive copy. But again I agree with Ara If the CD is available (and cheaper) buy it and rip it at CD levels and downsize to your tablet or phone. Try software that does Multi-rip so it only has to do it once and you get both files packaged up and sent off to their respective homes (NAS and Itunes library)
On Google Amazon or Itunes:
(a). Format
Ignoring what happens when you die, and because I am geo-blocked from Amazon Music, I am ambivalent between Google (MP3's 320 Kbs) and Itunes (AAC's 256Kbs) so I shop around for the cheapest or often who actually has it.
(b). Hardware Design
I like the Apple model and have Apple TV or an old Nano in Remote Control Dock linked to a receiver to play music. Since there is no Google Dongle here in OZ - yet - I cannot say much about that. I do have a Netgear PUSH2TV but an old AV receiver that does not have HDMI (Sound + Vision) so music must pass through my TV and then into the AVR. I tend to use a cheap Bluetooth adaptor that plugs into the RC Dock to use with my Nexus. It's A2DP not AptX (neither is my nexus) so it is also flaky.
(c). Software Clouds and Apps
Google play is free and now has a feature where you can point it at your Itunes library and it will upload your apple purchases and download your Google purchases though the interface this is handy it is still a bit flaky. Apple has the paid Match model.
Google also has another nice feature with cover art from similar artists displays as you play your music - it's good for Discovery though I found Pandora Radio better for that when I had a Windows Phone.