WSJ: Stations Stepping Up Mobile Strategies

The Wall Street Journal has a story today about stations trying to beat Aereo and its ilk at their own game–getting station content into users’ handhelds through streaming and, to a lesser degree, through mobile TV.

You can seemingly access the story without a subscription here. 

Writes the Journal:

Stations are trying to keep up with a rapidly changing television marketplace, where consumers are increasingly watching video online and via mobile devices. Broadcasters want to get the content that appears on their stations onto mobile devices before others do.

The article touches on similar themes that I covered in our “Small Screens, Big Battle” cover story last week. (Alas, you will need a subscription for that one.) In short, live streaming apps are coming quickly to market, mobile TV less so, and the pressure from the streaming entities built on the backs of broadcaster, such as Aereo, are compelling stations to speed up their launch schedule.

Here’s what the Journal said of Aereo:

Aereo represents a dual threat for local stations. If it continues, it could hurt the stations’ ability to collect fees for carriage of their signal from pay-TV providers, a growing source of revenue. And it also could prompt big networks to convert to pay channels, an option suggested by Fox parent News Corp. earlier this month as a potential response to what it calls Aereo’s piracy.