Hasta La Gadget!

Television networks aren’t happy at all about the Aereo TV service. Aereo recently won a court decision upholding its right to stream broadcast television without paying retransmission fees. Previously, television studio Fox had threatened to pull its programming off the over the air airwaves to prevent Aereo from accessing its signal.

Television network CBS has also announced that it will consider pulling its programming from over the airwaves if Aereo continues to broadcast its signals to customers. CBS says that it would consider moving to a subscription only model in the New York area. If CBS made good on the threat it would mean that no one in the New York area would be able to access CBS programming using an antenna over the air.

Many see this as an empty threat because if Fox and CBS stock over the air broadcasts, it would mean that they would lose some viewers who don’t subscribe to cable and access programming exclusively over the air. A Fox executive previously claimed that the network needed to build a revenue stream model of retransmission fees and advertising to sustain its business.

CBS CEO Leslie Moonves stated this week that he “wholeheartedly” supported Fox’s statements and that CBS had been in talks with cable operators about taking its broadcast signal off the air. The latest row in the Aereo saga came after a federal appeals court in New York upheld a lower court ruling in favor of the Aereo service. The service uses a network of small antennas to pick up over the air broadcast signals that it streams over the Internet to subscribers making the content viewable on just about any Internet connected device.

[via CNET]

CBS may also ditch OTA broadcasts if Aereo continues is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Angered over Aereo’s recent win in Appeals court, News Corp is threatening to cancel its free Fox TV network and switch it completely to a subscription-based service. Many other networks are also frustrated with Aereo, which takes over-the-air broadcast signals with its thousands of little antennas and feeds them to its subscribers’ computers, phones, and tablets. Many networks that have fought against Aereo include Fox, ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, Univision, and more.

Chase Carey, Chief Operating Officer of News Corp, stated,

Aereo is stealing our signal. We believe in our legal rights. We’re going to pursue those legal rights fully and completely, and we believe we’ll prevail. But we want to be clear. If we can’t have our rights properly protected through legal and political avenues, we will pursue business solutions. One such business solution would be to take the network and turn it into a subscription service.

Carey also stated,

“One option could be converting the Fox broadcast network to a pay channel, which we would do in collaboration with both our content partners and affiliates.”

Because Aereo has individual antennas picking up the broadcast signals, the court ruled that Aereo wasn’t retransmitting signals. It stated that Aereo was merely offering subscribers an option that they could already do with their own antennas. If the court did rule that Aereo was retransmitting the broadcast signals, it would most likely have to pay a fee to the TV networks.

Retransmission fees add up to billions of dollars in total each year, and are usually paid by companies that want to redistribute the networks’ programming to their subscribers. The court says that like Cablevision’s web-based RS-DVR, Aereo isn’t a video-on-demand service and isn’t retransmitting signals. It is merely storing individual copies of TV shows and providing them to the user who had requested them.

If Fox is converted to a subscription-based network, many popular TV shows, like American Idol, Glee, Family Guy, and X-Factor, will see a drastic hit in viewers. All of those shows are what made Fox so popular, so limiting the number of viewers who have access to them may backfire on Fox. Aereo charges a fee for its services. Fees range from $8-$12 monthly, and $80 for the entire year. We’ll keep you posted on how this case turns out.

[via Fox News]

News Corp threatens to cancel its free Fox TV network if Aereo isn’t banned is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The new SyFy drama “Defiance” is taking a big leap and is going to be the first TV show to have a video game counterpart weaved into it at the same time. While it’s normal for some shows and movies to have video games made after they air, like The Walking Dead, Defiance will seamlessly connect both simultaneously. The actual show will take place in a revamped St. Louis, while you will be able to create a new character in a revamped San Francisco.

The TV show, which is set to premiere next Monday, is set 30 years after 2013. Aliens known as Votans have come to Earth in search of a new home. After some conflicts, and a Votan ambassador being assassinated by a human supremacist, the Votans and Humans go to war. The war wages on for 30 years before both species agree to a ceasefire to ensure their survival. Joshua Nolan, a former Marine, declares himself the Chief Lawkeeper of Defiance (the revamped St. Louis) to maintain peace between the Votans and the humans, and to protect the town from the dangers of the outside world.

Defiance worked together with Trion Worlds to develop the Defiance MMO. The game is available for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and the PC for $59.99. Characters are able to create their own characters and play in the Defiance world. There are massive co-op battles, tons of weapons, “Fierce Shadow War” multiplayer, and constant updates, including 5 DLCs set to come out in the future. For PC users, there is a deluxe edition available for $99.99 that gives you many extra bonuses. There is no subscription fee for the game.

Kevin Murphy, writer and producer of Desperate Housewives, is the executive producer for Defiance. In an interview with Reuters, he stated, “What’s unusual about what we’re doing… is we’re building the second-screen concept into the actual DNA of the show-game combo.” He states that in future seasons of the show, there will be crossovers between the game and the TV show, including implementing actual user characters into the TV show in later seasons and having actions in the video game affect the plot of the show. The game and the show cost $100 million in total to create, and the crossover between both will hopefully secure a dedicated fan base.

[via Reuters]

“Defiance” is both a TV show and a video game is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Sony has just announced the pricing and release date for its 55-inch and 65-inch 4K Ultra HD LED TVs, however, to completely take advantage of the TVs’ beautiful displays, you’re going to need a media player capable of playing 4K media. That’s where the Sony FMP-X1 4K Media Player comes in. The FMP-X1 is set to be released over the summer, and will bring 4K resolution feature films and video shorts to your television for $699.

The FMP-X1 will come bundled with 10 feature films and video shorts. The feature films include: Bad Teacher, Battle:Los Angeles, The Bridge on the River Kawi, The Karate Kid, Salt, Taxi Driver, That’s My Boy, The Amazing Spider-Man, The Other Guys, and Total Recall. A majority of those films are actually very appealing, and should help make the $700 price-tag much less painful to stomach.

When Fall rolls around, Sony will also be launching a video-distribution service that owners of the FMP-X1 will be able to take advantage of. The service will offer a whole library of 4K movies and shows for a fee. Titles will be available from a variety of productions, including, of course, Sony Pictures Entertainment. Whether the fee will be per title, or one-set fee for an unlimited amount of content is still unknown.

Also on April 17th, Sony will be working together with The Tribeca Film Festival to promote its 4K video production among amateur and professional film makers, in hopes of getting many film makers to support its products. However, it may be a while before people can adapt to 4K televisions. With the $4,999/$6,999 price-tag along with the $699 price-tag for the media player, these products aren’t exactly affordable for the average consumer.

[via Sony]

Sony FMP-X1 4K Media Player coming over the summer is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The Internet is great and all, but the fake Internet on TV is even better. This mashup from Slacktory takes you on a whirlwind tour of all the best (read: worst) sites that (probably) don’t and shouldn’t exist. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to get back to kickin’ it on WinAtBingoAndRock.com. [Slacktory] More »