Barry Diller, the billionaire
chairman of IAC/InteractiveCorp. (IACI), expects his Aereo Inc. Web-
based television service to be in 75 to 100 cities within a year
after making its debut this week in New York.
Aereo, a $12-per-month service that lets users access
broadcast TV on mobile devices, will begin telecasting on March
14. The company wants to expand rapidly after that, Diller said
yesterday in a keynote address at the South by Southwest
Interactive festival in Austin, Texas.
For the service to get off the ground, it has to beat back
efforts by Walt Disney Co. (DIS)’s ABC and other networks, which said
earlier this month that Aereo would violate copyright laws. The
networks said that Aereo is “circumventing” the distribution
system and should be blocked.
Diller said efforts to block the service are “absolutely
predictable,” because media companies always try to protect
their turf.
“I completely understand their motivation,” he said.
“It’s going to be a great fight.”
Aereo, based in Long Island City, New York, is backed in
part by IAC/Interactive. The company received $20.5 million in
financing on Feb. 14, with contributions coming from venture
capital firms including FirstMark Capital and First Round
Capital.
The service is delivered via quarter-inch antennas that are
placed in data centers. The technology uses the existing
broadcasting signal in any given city and lets consumers bypass
the costs of monthly cable or satellite service.
“Behind that simplicity is a lot of technology,” Diller
said.
Aereo responded to the broadcasters’ complaints today,
calling the lawsuits “meritless.” The company said its business
is lawful and that it’s based on users’ rights to access
broadcast television, record it for personal consumption and use
remotely-located equipment.
IAC/Interactive fell less than 1 percent to $48.24 at the
close in New York today. The stock has jumped 60 percent in the
past year, compared with a 5.8 percent gain for the Standard
Poor’s 500 Index.
The cases against the company are American Broadcasting
Companies v. Aereo, 12-1540, and WNET v. Aereo, 12-1543, U.S.
District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan.)
To contact the reporter on this story:
Ari Levy in Austin at
[email protected]
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Tom Giles at [email protected]
