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Filing Reveals Relatively Tiny Aereo Subscriber Count
Before being deflated by the Supreme Court, Aereo's solution to broadband TV viewing received plenty of attention in the press for the disruptive precedent, but it received significantly less attention from actual users in the real world. In paperwork filed with the U.S. Copyright Office, Aereo this week finally revealed subscriber numbers: just 77,596 subscribers overall at the end of last year. 27,000 of those subscribers were in New York City, with 12,000 subscribers in Boston, and 10,000 in Atlanta. Earlier this year Aereo ran out of New York City, leading CEO Chet Kanojia to insist his infrastructure in NYC could support 350,000 potential subscribers.
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mikeluscher159
join:2011-09-04

1 recommendation

mikeluscher159

Member

wow.

I signed up in NYC in what turned out to be there last week. I really did like the Android App and service. Between this and the peering pissing match going down with my ISP, it seems those against cord cutting are starting to bite back.

MovieLover76
join:2009-09-11
Cherry Hill, NJ

MovieLover76

Member

Re: wow.

I tried it, I thought it was a good idea, but the PQ was severely lacking, especially if you tried it on a Roku with their app.
It was barely watchable on my 46 inch tv.
mikeluscher159
join:2011-09-04

mikeluscher159

Member

Re: wow.

I see. It didn't look too bad on my droid maxx at the train station.

MovieLover76
join:2009-09-11
Cherry Hill, NJ

MovieLover76

Member

Re: wow.

I'm sure it looked fine on a smartphone lol

Tomek
Premium Member
join:2002-01-30
Valley Stream, NY

Tomek

Premium Member

There is nothing on TV

I don't watch OTA TV because there is nothing there. And I am not interested in ad-filled crap and then pay extra for that.
My problem with Aereo was that they didn't support Android for longest, so I have grudge for that

maartena
Elmo
Premium Member
join:2002-05-10
Orange, CA

maartena

Premium Member

Re: There is nothing on TV

said by Tomek:

I don't watch OTA TV because there is nothing there. And I am not interested in ad-filled crap and then pay extra for that.
My problem with Aereo was that they didn't support Android for longest, so I have grudge for that

I have OTA through a roof antenna for the local news and a few programs I might record on my media server (which has a TV card).

But yeah, quality of TV has gone down drastically. And a huge chunk of your cable bill goes to sports and junk. Glad I cut subscription TV altogether.
ITGeeks
join:2014-04-20
Cleveland, OH

ITGeeks to Tomek

Member

to Tomek
Easier to support iDevice as it is one eco-system to develop for instead of countless other versions that you need to develop and support.
Nanaki (banned)
aka novaflare. pull punches? Na
join:2002-01-24
Akron, OH

Nanaki (banned)

Member

Re: There is nothing on TV

Oh i don't know i have yet to download any thing for my kindle fire total 3 dif vers of android amazons bloated junk with amazons bloated junk launcher to heavily modded amazon bloated junk that was debloated to cm11 with a few nightlies and cm11 m8 4.4.4. Not a single app hick up regardless of if it was pulled from play or installed from saved apk. If it was compatible with my hardware (cpu gpu ram) it runs perfectly. If not rated to work with my hardware it works slowly and with lots of lag.

Android is pretty much a single eco system. With apple who wants the headache? Want to delete all your photos in one shot buy a app want to delete just contacts buy a app. want to delete all of any one thing buy a app. No thank you get out the shot gun and blow it to bits or send it to the will in blend guy on youtube for ultimate apple destruction....

As for topic at hand i never used this service but i think its pretty crappy to try and force or to force these start ups out of the market. I my self m working on something hardware wise something new that is going to piss off some big fatcat companies. So im sitting quiet and going slow till i have something to show at makers shows etc.

But yeh im sure if i get it to market there will be some company or another that files a law suit against me for violating some copyright they imagine i infringed on.

I do have to say this though while 77k subscribers is nothing to sneeze at i do not see why they did not say that was how many they had. Kind of foolish as it just makes them look silly when they finally state their totals. They should have said that "we are currently pushing towards 100k subscribers. It is truthful they are pushing towards that mark.
intok (banned)
join:2012-03-15

intok (banned) to Tomek

Member

to Tomek
The Milwaukee area OTA only weather channel that is narrated by the NOAA weather robot is actually far superior to all other weather channels and sites I've seen.

IPPlanMan
Holy Cable Modem Batman
join:2000-09-20
Washington, DC

1 recommendation

IPPlanMan

Member

Tiny, but scary...

Aereo may have been tiny, but it scared the hell out of the broadcasters.
kaila
join:2000-10-11
Lincolnshire, IL

kaila

Member

Re: Tiny, but scary...

And it was a great product, that had little marketing (aside from the substantial buzz around their fights with broadcasters). I was one of the lucky few who had service gratis, who was put into an unoffical beta in the permanently on hold Chicago market.

I definitely miss them, and hope they're able make a comeback.
78036364 (banned)
join:2014-05-06
USA

78036364 (banned)

Member

Re: Tiny, but scary...

said by kaila:

And it was a great product, .

Really? For people like me 70+ miles from the "local" network where it's hard to impossible to get in via antenna this would have been good. But Aereo wasn't design for people like me. If you live in these cities you can use an antenna.
existenz
join:2014-02-12

existenz to IPPlanMan

Member

to IPPlanMan
Broadcasters and content makers need to be more concerned about millions using Popcorn Time around the world, not 30K Aero users in a few cities. It's essentially a Netflix interface on top of torrenting and can't be stopped. Could hit hundreds of millions as it gets easier to send to TV - they have already added Chromecast support. Will be interesting to see how copyright protectors go after this.
KnightAR
join:2004-04-22
San Marcos, CA

KnightAR

Member

Re: Tiny, but scary...

The reason why the Broadcasters and Content Makers was worried about Aereo so soon, was the potential it had to really disrupt the market. I think the reason why it only had so few users are because they will treading lightly cause not much long after they launched they were hit by many lawsuits. I think if the lawsuits didn't come they would have pushed the service to more cities faster, as they wouldn't have had to spend the money to defend the service. In my view the Supreme Court is wrong, but what do you expect from a government that's in the pockets of big business.
Nanaki (banned)
aka novaflare. pull punches? Na
join:2002-01-24
Akron, OH

Nanaki (banned) to IPPlanMan

Member

to IPPlanMan
See i just do not get that. Arial tv cable tv etc are not going any where any time soon. So why the heck would they be scared of things like this? I do not care how great and powerful your tablet phone or laptop is some times it is better to have a hard line such as cable than to use you wifi in your house.

And truth is some one mentioned recording their shows on a media box then watching when they want. This is just as quote unquote bad for the broadcasters as any streamed tv. Both remove commercials etc. So who really cares? Commercial = bathroom break smoke break what ever break.
silbaco
Premium Member
join:2009-08-03
USA

silbaco

Premium Member

Re: Tiny, but scary...

They weren't scared of Aereo service. They were scared of the precedent Aereo could bring and the technology they had, which could have potentially resulted in losing retransmission fees from cable companies.
psiu
join:2004-01-20
Farmington, MI

psiu

Member

I would keep paying

$8 legal defense fund/infrastructure upkeep?

Shoot, I would keep paying if they had an option. :P

maartena
Elmo
Premium Member
join:2002-05-10
Orange, CA

maartena

Premium Member

Re: I would keep paying

said by psiu:

$8 legal defense fund/infrastructure upkeep?

Shoot, I would keep paying if they had an option. :P

I wouldn't count em out yet. Aereo is the first company to try something like this, but they tried to circumvent paying retransmission fees with the "rent-a-tenna" idea.

There might be a new startup in coming years that starts off with negotiating for the rights. Broadcasters and current cable/sat companies are resisting it, but its only a matter of time before the first true online "cable" company is born.

Just don't be under any illusions that it will actually be cheaper.
AmericanMan
Premium Member
join:2013-12-28
united state

AmericanMan

Premium Member

I bet Netflix was tiny when it first started out too...

Imagine where we'd be if the Supreme Court had legislated that Netflix's business model was illegal?

jseymour
join:2009-12-11
Waterford, MI

jseymour

Member

Re: I bet Netflix was tiny when it first started out too...

Imagine where we'd be if SCOTUS had ruled VCR'ing illegal?

In both cases: Right where content makers and distributors would like us: At their mercy and stuck in the 20th century.

Jim
78036364 (banned)
join:2014-05-06
USA

78036364 (banned)

Member

Re: I bet Netflix was tiny when it first started out too...

said by jseymour:

Imagine where we'd be if SCOTUS had ruled VCR'ing illegal?

In both cases: Right where content makers and distributors would like us: At their mercy and stuck in the 20th century.

Jim

Actually if the VCR was ruled illegal the content makers would be worse off because the whole home entertainment industry wouldn't exist and the reason why many movies make any sort of profit is because of DVD purchases/rentals.

Selenia
Gentoo Convert
Premium Member
join:2006-09-22
Fort Smith, AR

Selenia

Premium Member

Re: I bet Netflix was tiny when it first started out too...

said by 78036364:

said by jseymour:

Imagine where we'd be if SCOTUS had ruled VCR'ing illegal?

In both cases: Right where content makers and distributors would like us: At their mercy and stuck in the 20th century.

Jim

Actually if the VCR was ruled illegal the content makers would be worse off because the whole home entertainment industry wouldn't exist and the reason why many movies make any sort of profit is because of DVD purchases/rentals.

The old cheaper(still expensive at that time) players were never called into question. The whole case was over the ability to copy TV shows and movies off the cable or over the air broadcast and timeshift besides, allowing for multiple recordings with multiple VCRs. Indeed, the old movie piracy was people recording movies then linking up VCRs to give copies to friends or sell them. Hence why macrovision came out for prerecorded movies to make copies come out scrambled, though it was beatable and could not be incorporated into Cable TV or OTA broadcasts. So they were pretty much screwed on that front.
frank124c
join:2003-12-04
Brooklyn, NY

frank124c

Member

Aereo

The big problem with Aereo from the users point of view was that you could only watch a channel 1 hour at a time. Then you had to close the browser and re-open the browser b4 u could get another show. I am now using ustvnow which doesn't do that and is still running. It works best with the Maxthon browser which has a built in VPN. As for Netflix, who needs them? I have found Popcorn which is entirely free and lets you watch great movies and tv shows. Also YouTube has tons of great movies--oldies but goodies--that you can watch for free. I have so much to watch already on my computer that I don't bother with tv at all. I'm in video hog heaven with my old xp computer!