New Service Will Stream Local TV Stations in New York

An online television company has come up with a way to stream local television stations to paying subscribers on the Internet, potentially forming a new cord-cutting threat for cable and satellite distributors.

The new company, called Aereo, held a news conference to demonstrate its service, which will go on sale on March 14. The service will cost subscribers $12 a month and will work only in New York City. Aereo will stream all of the programming of the major networks (ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC) and will include an Internet-powered digital video recorder. What it lacks completely is cable TV. But for some people, particularly those who do not watch sports cable channels like ESPN or premium channels like HBO, a combination of Aereo and an on-demand streaming service like Netflix or Hulu could be an appealing alternative to a cable subscription. For casual television viewers, “if you have this and you have Netflix, you absolutely have the ability to not have a standard cable subscription,” said Chet Kanojia, the founder and chief executive of Aereo, which was initially named Bamboom Labs.