Technology

Aereo Will Close Its Boston Office

Aereo CEO Chet Kanojia leaves the U.S. Supreme Court in April. Getty Images

By Adam Vaccaro

November 6, 2014

1 minute to read

Aereo, the streaming TV service that came out on the losing end of a Supreme Court case earlier this year, is closing up shop in Boston.

It will shutter its Boston office and lay off 43 employees here next week, BetaBoston reports.

Aereo says it is not throwing in the towel entirely. “This was a difficult, but necessary step in order to preserve the company,’’ a spokesperson told BostInno about the layoffs.

Since the Supreme Court ruled in June that Aereo’s service—which streamed over-the-air broadcast TV to subscribers’ computers for a monthly fee—was in violation of copyright laws, and since it shut off its service shortly thereafter, the startup has been seeking a means by which to stay operational, even if it meant paying to transmit broadcasters’ content. But it’s hit a series of roadblocks in so doing.

Aereo’s headquarters are in New York, but it kept its largest office in Boston. While it only had about 12,000 subscribers in the region, and about 77,500 in 10 cities across the U.S., it was often cited as an indicator of consumers’ rapidly changing preferences in watching TV—specifically, that they want to cut their cable or satellite connection and get it on the web. Since Aereo has shut down, HBO and CBS have announced streaming products serving their own content.

CBS, speaking of, was among the broadcasters that fought Aereo in court, arguing that it should not be allowed to stream its content without paying retransmission fees, as cable companies do. Aereo’s business model was built on charging users who rented out access to small antennas, stored in one place, which users could access from their computer or mobile device. The company argued that meant use of the service was not any different from consumers keeping an antenna in their home, but the Supreme Court wasn’t having it. “This difference means nothing to the subscriber,’’ the court’s majority opinion said. “It means nothing to the broadcaster.’’