Aereo said this morning that it was rolling its antenna and cloud-based TV service into the Atlanta area on June 17.
Following tomorrow’s launch in Boston, Atlanta is the next stop on Aereo’s planned expansion into 22 cities this year, which was announced in January.
On June 17, consumers who have pre-registered with Aereo will receive an invitation to join and use the service that captures over-the-air signals. After June 24, Aereo said it would make membership available to all eligible consumers across the Atlanta designated market area (DMA), which includes more than 5.3 million consumers in 55 counties across Georgia, Alabama and North Carolina.
In Atlanta, Aereo said there were 27 over-the-air broadcast channels accessible through its antenna/DVR technology, including ABC, Fox, CBS, PBS, and NBC affiliates. Special interest channels that will be available include France24, BounceTV, MyTV, and AntennaTV; and Spanish–language broadcast channels such as Univision, MundoFox, and UniMas. In addition, Aereo users will also be able to add Bloomberg Television, for a total of 28 channels.
“We’re grateful and humbled by the continued support we’ve received from consumers for our technology,” said Aereo CEO and founder Chet Kanojia. “The response and enthusiasm from consumers across all of our expansion cities has been phenomenal. It’s clear that consumers want more choice and flexibility in how they watch television and they don’t want to be fenced into expensive, outdated technology. We’re thrilled to be coming to Atlanta and look forward to our launch in June.”
Other cites slated for Aereo’s expansion include: Miami; Austin, Texas; Chicago; Dallas; Houston; Washington, D.C.; Baltimore; Detroit; Denver; Minneapolis; Philadelphia; Pittsburgh; Tampa; Cleveland; Kansas City; Raleigh-‐Durham, N.C.; Salt Lake City; Birmingham, Ala.; Providence, R.I; and Madison, Wis.
News of the Atlanta launch date came on the heels of yesterday’s announcement that Barry Diller-backed Aereo was changing its pricing plan.
Aereo launched its streaming service last year in New York City and was promptly sued by major broadcast networks, including News Corp., Disney and NBCUniversal, for copyright infringement. Earlier this year, a federal court of appeals affirmed a federal district court’s earlier decision to deny broadcasters’ request for a preliminary injunction against Aereo.
Last week, Aereo filed a complaint in a federal court in Manhattan that sought to prove that its technology didn’t infringe on CBS Corp.’s copyrights or federal copyright law.
CBS Chief Executive Leslie Moonves has threatened further lawsuits against Aereo, and said that his company might offer a similar service as a way to undercut Aereo.
