Aereo continues to take its arguments to the public as the Supreme Court weighs the legal arguments for allowing the company to charge subs for access to free TV station signals without Aereo having to pay a copyright fee for that programming.
In a new YouTube video, Aereo's top execs pitch the service as their innovative obligation to consumers looking for content wherever and whenever they want it.
That is in contrast to broadcasters' argument it is an illegal technological work-around of copyright laws.
Aereo Chief Commercial Officer Alex Moulle-Berteaux says in the video that TV has "barely innovated" in the past two decades. He calls Aereo "a totally new approach to TV."
In his portion of the video, Aereo founder Chet Kanojia bills the service as "first and foremost what is good for our customers."
The key takeaways are that Aereo, from those top execs' viewpoint, is that the company is using a "beautiful," "symphony" of technologies and the cloud to provide "seamless access" on any device to the TV signals they are entitled to get for free and the free fair use recording that is also protected by law.
"Everything needs to be written for the next generation of consumers," says Kanojia, "and I think it is our responsibility to do it."
The Supreme Court is expected to decide in the next several weeks if that "symphony" can keep playing, or the curtain may have to come down. The court is ruling on whether or not to permit Aereo to continue to operate while the underlying legality of its service is adjudicated in lower court, but its decision is expected to provide key guidance to that court on whether Aereo is a free TV-facilitating technology or an accessory to copyright infringement.
Aereo backers, including notably Barry Diller, have signaled that it will likely have to fold its tent if the Supremes come out against it. The court is expected to release more opinions later this week. On Monday (June 16) it decided the other case argued April 22 alongside Aereo, even though there are cases argued in January that have not been released. But that was a unanimous opinion, which Aereo may or may not be.
