Broadcasters To Take Aereo To Supreme Court

According to a source familiar with the move, broadcasters, "perhaps within days," plan to appeal the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit's denial of a stay in the Aereo case to the Supreme Court.

Aereo has been rolling out its service in more markets after a lower court refused to enjoin it and the Second Circuit seconded that decision.

Courts in various venues including New York and Boston have yet to rule on broadcasters underlying challenge, but they have concluded that broadcasters have not made a case for injunctions against Aereo while the lower courts are trying the cases.

Broadcasters say Aereo is providing a public performance without compensating them, while Aereo says it is providing remote online access to subs' free TV signals.

Broadcasters argue that allowing the service is causing serious damage to their business and that they are likely to win on appeal, but there is a high bar for securing an injunction. In denying an injunction to Hearst in Boston Thursday, the judge called an injunction an "extraordinary and drastic remedy."

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.