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March 12, 2014

Aereo Needs a 'CarterFone Decision' for the Home Network

It’s always hard to explain Telco tribulations to the younger generation. My father was doing his first stint in regulatory when the CarterFone decision occurred, and he thought he was going to see all sorts of charlatan devices attached to his network.  When people came up to me just after session controllers came out to ask if they needed these devices, I answered specifically, “If, when you talk about networks you use the word ‘ours’ or ‘theirs’ then my answer is yes; if you think of the Internet as ‘the Network’, then no.”

Today we have such services as FiOS and Optimum WiFi, which basically strive to avoid your having to employ extra network gear, allowing you to instead use their network for access to the Internet. And we have services such as Apple TV, Google’s Chromecast, Microsoft Xbox, etc. which expect open access to an unfettered Internet. For the sake of conversation we will hold the Netflix / Comcast solution to the end, and focus upfront on those folks that have homebound devices. These devices, which assume unrestricted Internet access, should regard Aereo as a wedge that makes such access measurable.

Image courtesy Shutterstock

So what is Aereo and why should more of us get onboard with it? Aereo is a server farm in the cloud that provides a private VPN-like service to customers that want to watch their local broadcast TV stations. It is a strictly broadcast area solution in which the service you buy is the service you get. Like Slingbox, Aereo requires a device for retransmitting signals, but unlike Slingbox it resides “in the cloud” which is in the broadcast area (for instance, I am in New Jersey while the service is Brooklyn).  Customers cannot buy service from outside their local area.

In theory, what Aereo offers is not much different from the “On Demand” service offered by cable operators, so why do broadcasters despise it? At this point, most major broadcasters have moved into cable channels as well, opting to abandon their must-carry rights in order to treat the whole of their content as a block in their negotiations with cable operators. Thus, CBS negotiates for “The Big Bang Theory” (CBS) and for “Shameless” (Showtime) at the same time that ABC negotiates for “Castle” and ESPN programming, etc.  That being the case, with Aereo offering a PVR service in the cloud, the two content areas are once again separated, as they were before cable became the dominant method of delivery, and customers can watch local broadcast content at home for free as they once did via aerial antenna.

In our post Net Neutrality world, the Aereo service brings home the realities of the local cable or wireline network access. Degradation of service is typically seen as an indication of poor management and poor service delivery on the part of cable operators. But if Internet service for broadcast TV is being degraded at the local level, Aereo will be seen as the culprit and will consequently suffer. At some point, local access should have a component that supports local connectivity. In a conversation with a cable operator friend, I pointed out that paying for the better speeds requires better monitoring, and with session controllers it is difficult for end users to gain any real insight. 

Aereo is like a canary in the Internet access coal mine: if you can’t reach it, something is seriously wrong. It is for that reason alone that Slingbox, TiVo, and all of the other media management devices should become friends of the court on Aereo’s behalf.


Edited by Rory J. Thompson


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