Hasta La Gadget!

Despite court battles, Aereo is on a roll. The startup just announced its streaming TV service will hit Chicagoland September 13. This comes just a month after the company announced its Atlanta launch details. Once Chicago is online, Aereo will be live in four of the country’s biggest cities, serving up network television to over 12 million Americans.

“There’s no place like Chicago and we’re excited to be launching in this world-class city in September,” said Aereo CEO and Founder Chet Kanojia said in a released statement today. “Consumers want more choice and flexibility when it comes to how they watch television and the enthusiastic response to our technology from people across the country has been humbling. At Aereo, we feel that we’ve built something meaningful for consumers and we’re proud of the work we’ve accomplished. However, there’s still much more to come as we continue our expansion into new cities throughout the summer and fall.”

Chicago marks Aereo’s fourth service area. The startup started in New York City quickly expanding to the surrounding areas. Boston came next followed by Atlanta a few days back. This is all while the company is fighting for its life in and out of the courtroom.

The big networks are fighting to stop Aereo from disrupting the status quo. Aereo essentially takes over-the-air signals and places them online. These signals are captured via tiny antenna’s rather than a direct transmitting from the networks themselves. This allows Aereo to bypass paying expensive retransmission fees, a fact that doesn’t sit well with the suits at the big networks.

But this isn’t about stealing content, famed TV executive turned Aereo investor Barry Diller. This is about moving TV to IP.

Right now, without Aereo, or any of its clones, television is not available through the Internet. Hulu and the like were built to serve as an advertising platform more so than a streaming platform. Aereo simply wants to bring TV to the Internet — while making a boat-load of cash doing it too.

Despite its gumption, Aereo’s legal troubles should not be ignored. Launching in more cities and more regions will only bring more attention to its disruptive business model. But likewise, Aereo cannot not sit idly, waiting for the hammer of justice to perhaps rule in its favor. It needs to launch. And with Chicago on the docket, it seems that’s exactly what the company is doing.

Aereo is planning to expand its streaming television service to a third city come next month. Atlanta residents will get the opportunity to take advantage of Aereo’s streaming broadcast TV plans starting on June 17. This comes after Aereo launched in New York, as well as the scheduled launch in Boston, which is set to take happen tomorrow.

Today’s announcement for expansion comes after Aereo recently unveiled new streamlined plans for its service, which would get rid of daily and annual plans in favor of two simple monthly plans. $8 per month would land you 20 hours of DVR storage space, while $12 per month will give you 60 hours of DVR space, which is 20 hours more than the previous $12 plan.

Aereo has been the center of a controversy since the launch of its streaming service. The company has been drawing criticism since users don’t need a cable subscription to watch broadcast television, as they can watch television on their mobile devices using Aereo’s service, which takes broadcast antenna signals and converts them into internet signals that the streaming app can digest.

Needless to say, Aereo has been sued multiple times by television networks, and the company already won in appeals court once. Plus, the lawsuits aren’t stopping the company from expanding its service to more cities. Aereo will launch service in Boston tomorrow, with Atlanta coming roughly a month later. The company plans to expand to 22 more cities in 2013, including Miami, Austin, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Washington DC, Baltimore, Detroit, Denver, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Tampa, Cleveland, and Kansas City. Those are just some of cities that are planned to get the new service, with more to come in the future if the lawsuits don’t take down the company first.

Aereo has taken some heat from networks ever since the launch of its streaming television service over a year ago. Both CBS and News Corp. (owner of FOX) have taken aggressive steps in order to get Aereo banned, calling the company’s actions illegal, since they’re supposedly stealing broadcast antenna signals and using them for their own gain financially. It’s a sticky situation, indeed, and we’re not sure how much longer Aereo will be able to stay up, but if the courts are in favor of Aereo, broadcasts networks will need to think of a new strategy to retain viewers.

Aereo coming to Atlanta next month is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
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We’ve been eager to try out Aereo’s TV streaming service, which sends live broadcast content to devices over the internet. But the service has had at least one significant flaw: it’s only available to subscribers in the New York City area. That will soon change when it heads to Boston on May 15th, though, and the streaming service has now announced that the rates will be changing slightly then as well. The base plan, which includes unlimited streaming and 20 hours of DVR storage, will remain unchanged at $8 per month, but the $12 monthly tariff will include 60 hours of storage, compared to the 40 hours Aereo previously offered.

And that’s it — no more $1 daily or $80 yearly plans, though that latter option is still available until the new structure goes live on Wednesday. The service is supported on iOS, Chrome, IE 9, Firefox, Safari, Opera and Roku devices, though those geographic restrictions keep the access pool quite limited. New Yorkers can take the service for a spin today, Bostonians will get the green light come May 15th, and the rest of you can see what you’re missing in the demo video after the break.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Internet, Software, HD

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Source: Aereo

Aereo has recently been in the news for its ability to offer streams for over-the-air broadcasts from channels like ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX and PBS to then make them available on PCs and mobile devices for a monthly fee, and today, the company is announcing it will be bringing its service to the Boston area starting May 15.

Customers in the New York City area as well as a few others have been able to use the service as Aereo has installed a number of antennas within a supported area to retrieve over-the-air broadcasts to then allow its customers to watch them digitally whenever they like. Aereo also offers a cloud-based DVR to allow its customers to watch shows whenever they have time.

Boston residents who have pre-registered for Aereo are expected to receive an invitation to join on May 15, while potential customers who have yet to pre-register will be able to accesss the service after May 30. Hopefully the Boston area will be a little more welcoming to Aereo as the company had to fight their way to be made available in New York City by winning in court against TV networks for it to continue to offer its service.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: YouTube For iOS Gets Send To TV Feature With Xbox 360, PS3, Smart TV Support, OmniVision Announces Video-in-Video Camera Technology For Smartphones And Tablets,

Good news, Bostonians: yours is the second major US city to get Aereo live television access via the web, and it’s starting on May 15th. Aereo announced its next city expansion this morning, and said the service will go live to pre-registered parties on May 15th. It will eventually become widely available to Boston’s “designated market area,” which includes “more than 4.5 million consumers in 15 counties in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont.” We’ve got the full list of counties after the break if you’re interested.

Of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg for Aereo, which has plans for expansion in 22 cities just this year. The OTA network internet streaming TV service launched in New York City early last year. Traditional broadcast networks have voiced concern over Aereo’s TV model, even threatening to move to cable should the nascent internet company gets its way in an ongoing legal battle.

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds, Home Entertainment, Tablets, Internet, HD

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