Nearly Half Of Streaming Households Would Drop Pay-Tv For Aereo

Just a little over a year after Aereo’s last victory in federal appeals court, on April 22 the Supreme Court will settle the question of Aereo’s legality once and for all.

Broadcast networks want Aereo to pay retransmission fees while Aereo says retrans fees do not apply because user-operated individual antennas are akin to a personal recording tool. Pending the upcoming Supreme Court decision, Aereo’s market expansion has been modest. The service is currently available in fewer than 20 markets nationwide.

If Aereo wins in court, the company will be free to forge ahead with offering a low-cost alternative to expensive pay-TV bundles to a much wider consumer audience. Centris surveyed its Evolution of Video Community (EOVC) to gauge interest in the service.

It appears that the pay-TV operators’ fears that Aereo has the potential to erode their market share are well-founded. Four out of ten pay-TV households said they would be likely to cancel their TV service and replace it with Aereo if it was available in their market. An additional 13% were undecided, suggesting potential for even greater conversion as consumers learn more about the service. The threat is stronger among pay-TV households that currently subscribe to an online video streaming service, with 45% likely to and 17% not sure if they would replace their pay-TV service with Aereo.