NFL, MLB Latest to Issue Threats if Aereo Wins in Court Broadcasters like CBS and News Corporation spent a good chunk of this year threatening to pull their stations from over the air broadcasts and instead hide them behind pay cable TV's paywall if Aereo manages to win in court. Now the NFL and MLB (who get a chunk of retrans fees paid by cable operators) have joined the fun with similar threats, filing an amicus brief with the Supreme Court filed in support of broadcaster efforts to have Aereo shut down. "If copyright holders lose their exclusive retransmission licensing rights and the substantial benefits derived from those rights when they place programming on broadcast stations, those stations will become less attractive mediums for distributing copyrighted content," they wrote to the court. " The option for copyright holders will be to move that content to paid cable networks (such as ESPN and TNT) where Aereo-like services cannot hijack and exploit their programming without authorization ." Like Fox and CBS before them, threats to pull content off the air are generally seen as empty; designed more to scare Congress into crushing a disruptive competitor by changing the law (it's worth noting the recently leaked Trans Pacific Partnership draft contains provisions aimed specifically at killing Aereo). Broadcasters have tried for much of the year unsuccessfully to get an injunction against the streaming TV provider, claiming that the service violates copyright. Broadcasters have tried for much of the year unsuccessfully to get an injunction against the streaming TV provider, claiming that the service violates copyright.







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Most recommended from 90 comments

mob (banned)

On the next level..

join:2000-10-07

San Jose, CA 5 recommendations mob (banned) Member This just makes me want to see This just makes me want to see Aereo succeed even more. Professional sports leagues are thugs that often threaten local governments to extract more welfare for the rich team owners.

mikesterr

join:2008-04-18

Sanford, FL 3 recommendations mikesterr Member Double Dip I still whole hearted believe that new laws about broadcasting should be passed. I feel that any channel that shows commercials should not also get re transmission fees from cable companies. I feel like they make money 2 times on me. We should go back to the model where your local OTA's are Must carry regulated. They can Make the TNT's and AMC's and Syfi's all subscription based in some way, but if they are subscription based then commercials need to be changed. Either only between shows or some other limitation. I know we can't remove commercials from the works but it really has gone crazy with broadcasters getting paid by advertisers then also by the fees i pay to the cable company.