CBS, FOX, Threatening to go Cable if Aereo Continues

CBS has joined FOX network in the fight against Aereo, threatening to convert the network to cable if Aereo continues as is.

Aereo is a service that takes the free signals from television stations and streams them to phones and computers of paying subscribers. In doing so, stations are not receiving the retransmission fees that makes up so much of their profit.

“We won’t just sit idle and allow our content to be actively stolen,” said Chase Carey, Rupert Murdoch’s top deputy at News Corporation. “It is clear that the broadcast business needs a dual revenue stream from both ad and subscription to be viable… “We need to be able to be fairly compensated for our content.”

Carey added that “one option could be converting the Fox broadcast network to a pay channel.”

“It sounds like an idle threat,” said John Bergmayer, a senior staff lawyer for Public Knowledge, a public interest group. Bergmayer added that Carey’s words were “probably just part of an opening gambit to Congress."

It’s not the first time Aereo has been in court. News Corporation, the Walt Disney Company, Comcast, the CBS Corporation and Univision sued Aereo for copyright infringment after the service was announced last year. Their appeals were rejected in a 2-to-1 decision.

CBS chief executive Les Moonves says that he “wholeheartedly supported what Chase said.”

“Frankly, we don’t think it will get to that point,” Moonves added. The CBS network continues to maintain high ratings, with hit shows like "How I Met Your Mother" and "The Big Bang Theory" drawing viewers.

Aereo has said that it plans to expand to nearly two dozen cities this year... however, what is overlooked in every scenario here becomes the millions of Americans who still rely on antennas to watch television.

As Bill Reyner, the owner of the Fox station in Rapid City, S.D., said, “The real loser in all of this are those that can’t afford pay TV.”