Hasta La Gadget!

New York City-based Aereo, a startup that streams network TV over the Internet, has today expanded its list of supported devices beyond Apple devices and Roku to all major web browsers.

If you haven’t yet heard about Aereo, and you live in New York, you better put your listening ears on. Many of us New Yawkers don’t have TVs (for many reasons) and so we miss out on lots of network television unless we seek it out on Netflix (months later) or illegally (immediately). But Aereo has essentially found a way to shrink an HD TV antenna down to tiny, and the company licenses out these antennas to users for $12/mo.

This gives you access to approximately 20 network channels streamed in HD over the Internet, but until now that was limited to Apple-style Internet: iPads, iPhones, Apple TV (from a compatible device), Roku (with firmware 3.0 or higher), and the Safari browser. Today, Aereo is bringing its magic to all New York City-based PCs.

Check out the full list:

• Firefox 11.0 or higher
• Chrome latest version
• Safari 5.0 or higher
• Opera 12.0 or higher
• Internet Explorer 9 or higher

Clearly Aereo has a real shot at disrupting cable television, and we’re glad to see this expansion at such a crucial time. But major TV networks aren’t so thrilled. Aereo is being sued by a group of broadcasters that includes ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox for not paying them for the network access.

But no worries. Aereo says that the over-the-air signals are free to anyone who wants to buy a digital antenna, which is what they’ve built and are now licensing out to their own users.

The last time we spoke about streaming over-the-air TV service Aereo, they were having quite the legal battle with several major television networks – now they’re out of the haze and ready to bring on inexpensive service to the masses. It’s not easy being a company that offers up content from giant conglomerates and media-serving monsters, but at $8 per month, it appears that Aereo has found a way to do it rather cheaply. In addition to DVR space that changes based on the plan you purchase, you’ve got several selections for grabbing yourself a full range of channels – including an Annal plan that’s got the whole deal even cheaper than the new monthly sub-$10 cost.

What you’ve got here is a set of plans that includes access to live, local TV, DVR storage space, remote antennas, and the ability to pause and rewind content. That’s a service that’s ready to shake the industry up. In addition to having several pricing structures on hand here and now, Aereo also offers a “try for free” plan which includes one continuous hour a day of streaming content – no strings attached.

As it turns out, early reviewers of this service have noted how difficult it is to get going with live TV without an iPad – but if you’ve got a PC or an Apple TV with Airplay and a MacBook Pro – you’re just as much in business as you’d normally be with any other web-based solution. Now that the internet-connected television portal to the earth is wide open, the solutions are pouring in. With Aereo, you’ve got not just streaming on-demand shows, you’ve got the same live TV that you remember from when you were a kid – or if you’ve had cable all this time, silly you.

At the moment you’ll have to be a resident of New York City to make Aereo work for you. If you’re outside of the city, you’ll have to wait for the tantalizing price of free all the way up to $80 USD a year with “three extra months for free.” You’ve got 40 hours of DVR storage space on the top two tiers of plans with the $8 a month plan starting in at 20 hours of space. That’s one whole heck of a lot of episodes of The Office – as the press images suggest.

Aereo brings cheap streaming TV as it leaps the legal hump is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
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Aereo, the website which acts as an internet-based DVR for any channel you can get for free over the airwaves, drew legal attention as soon as it was announced earlier this year. Yesterday, though, Aereo won a court case trying to block the service in New York—and now it plans to roll out to every major US city. More »

While the battle between Aereo, a service that brings OTA TV broadcasts to the internet, and the broadcasters that began suing it before it even launched continues, a judge ruled today against a request for a preliminary injunction to shut it down. Reuters reports that the basis for the decision is that while the broadcasters demonstrated they faced “irreparable harm”, Aereo too faced harm from a potential shutdown, and the balance did not tip heavily enough in the broadcasters favor. So, for now the subscription feeds from those microantennas to NYC residents shelling out $12 a month will continue — we’ll wait see if the upstart streamer’s streak continues.

Continue reading Aereo avoids a preliminary injunction, keeps its antenna to internet TV service on the air for now

Filed under: Home Entertainment

Aereo avoids a preliminary injunction, keeps its antenna to internet TV service on the air for now originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 Jul 2012 18:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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