Internet television service Aereo will launch in Miami on Sept. 2, in Houston Sept. 16 and in Dallas Sept. 23, the company announced Thursday.
Aereo’s customers pay a monthly subscription fee to access and record local television broadcasts. Broadcasters have sued to stop the service, and the service has sued back. After Aereo won a court victory in April, “the broadcast world may have to learn to live with it,” Brian Stelter wrote. (An attempt by broadcasters to get that ruling re-heard also went Aereo’s way.)
Aereo’s release for Miami, for instance, says “consumers will be able to use Aereo’s unique antenna/DVR technology, to record and watch major networks such as WFOR (CBS), WPBT (PBS), WTVJ (NBC), WSVN (FOX) and WPLG (ABC), as well as other over-the-air special interest and foreign language channels, including Telemundo, Univision, EstrellaTV, The CW, AntennaTV, Qubo, ION and many others. In addition, consumers will also have the ability to add Bloomberg Television.”
Aereo said earlier this year it intends to move into 22 markets in the U.S. In April Tom Bier of WISC-TV in Madison, Wisc., told Poynter that Aereo “makes sense” as a competitor in large markets. But in small markets such as his, he said, “[Aereo is] no different from anyone else, and we have a copyrighted signal, and we should be compensated for that.”
