Supremes Grant Aereo More Time to Respond to Broadcasters

The Supreme Court has given Aereo 30 more days to respond to broadcasters' petition to the court to decide whether Aereo's over-the-top TV station delivery service should be allowed to continue while a lower court hears a broadcaster challenge to the service.

Aereo's request for a 30-day extension was a routine one, according to attorneys for the other side.

The Court this week extended the deadline for responses to the broadcaster petition to Dec. 12. It also said lawyers for both sides had signaled their blanket consent for petitions in support or opposition, which means amicus curiae briefs don't have to get individual consent letters from the parties. That signals the lawyers are expecting a lot of briefs, which are still due Nov. 12, the original deadline for the Aereo response.

Last month, the major broadcast networks and PBS asked the High Court to rule on whether Aereo’s Internet delivery of TV station signals is a public performance subject to copyright payments, or rather — as Aereo asserts — remote, private access to the free over-the-air signals viewers are entitled to. The answer, broadcasters argue, is critical to their future.

In making their case for why the court should review the Second Circuit Court of Appeals’ denial of an injunction against Aereo, the broadcasters offered up their arguments for why not doing so would cause them major harm, which is one of the tests for granting a preliminary injunction.

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.