On Friday, the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case brought by ABC and a number of other TV and film studios against Aereo, the online TV startup. The two sides will present oral arguments in April 2014, with a decision expected by July 2014.

"The question presented is: Whether a company 'publicly performs' a copyrighted television program when it retransmits a broadcast of that program to thousands of paid subscribers over the Internet," wrote the petitioners last year.

As we’ve reported before, Aereo has consistently won at all levels of the judicial system, including most notably at the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in July 2013.

The petitioners argue that Aereo’s entire business model is predicated on theft. Aereo, in contrast, says that because it is employing thousands of tiny antennas, what it is doing—creating a de facto DVR—is perfectly legal. ABC et al think that the appellate court got its decision all wrong, and as such, the entertainment establishment is really freaked out.

As they wrote in their petition to the Supreme Court:

The decision below has far-reaching adverse consequences for the broadcast television industry, making the need for this Court’s review urgent and acute. The decision already is having a transformative effect on the industry. Industry participants will not and cannot afford to wait for something of this magnitude to percolate before responding to new business realities. And once Aereo’s technology is entrenched and the industry has restructured itself in response, a ruling by this Court in Petitioners’ favor will come too late. The disruption threatened by Aereo will produce changes that will be difficult, if not impossible, to reverse.

For its part, Aereo has unusually welcomed the court’s granting of certiorari. Why? Because it’s been sued across the country and wants to settle the issue once and for all.

“We said from the beginning that it was our hope that this case would be decided on the merits and not through a wasteful war of attrition,” said CEO Chet Kanojia in a statement on Friday.

“We look forward to presenting our case to the Supreme Court, and we have every confidence that the Court will validate and preserve a consumer’s right to access local over-the-air television with an individual antenna, make a personal recording with a DVR, and watch that recording on a device of their choice.”