By Jennie Pearson, PRWEB, San Francisco, June 06, 2014
In anticipation of the Supreme Court decision for "American Broadcasting Companies, Inc. v. Aereo, Inc." market research firm Peerless Insights has conducted a study on consumer opinions. The research findings show that of the 1,231 adults surveyed, 46% want Aereo to win while just 15% favor broadcasters.
Clearly, the demand for a service like Aereo is growing. Now the question is: can the industry find a business model that will benefit over-the-top services, TV broadcasters and viewers alike?
Today, market research firm Peerless Insights announced results of a new study gauging consumer opinions about the highly anticipated Supreme Court of the United States ruling "American Broadcasting Companies, Inc. v. Aereo, Inc." (Docket No. 13-461). Findings reveal that the majority of consumers want to see Aereo prevail; however they also believe that like traditional cable companies, Aereo should compensate broadcasters for content appropriation.
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Well, if Aereo actually did "compensate broadcasters," doing so would destroy its entire business model. Aereo would have to pay monetary fees, and presumably it would have to comply with whatever other demands that broadcasters impose on cable TV and sat TV companies.
Principal among those other demands would be carriage of co-owned non-broadcast programming. I doubt that, for example, an ABC O&O station would grant retrans-consent for the ABC broadcast signal without bundling it with ESPN, Disney Channel, ABC Family, and whatever else ABC is demanding of cable and sat companies. Each of those signals carries a separate monetary fee. Aereo would end up carrying the same signals that cable and sat companies carry and paying similar wholesale prices.
Of course, Aereo could undercut cable and sat retail prices by using the internet for signal delivery. But one way or another, the consumer still has to pay for internet access, thus largely negating Aereo's price advantage.