Why Aereo Loss Will Discourage Technology Innovation in Hollywood

[Commentary] The decision by the US Supreme Court to back US broadcasters against the upstart service Aereo will send a clear message to innovators: Don't.

It makes a nice short-term win for the broadcasters who have legacy businesses and retransmission fees to protect. But it's a long-term loss for the entertainment industry, which can only survive by embracing change, encouraging innovation and being willing to blow up old business models to win in the brave new world of digital media in which we live. Broadcast television already faces a highly challenged business model.

With overall broadcast ratings declining every year and the fragmentation of audience across basic cable, premium cable and a dizzying number of streaming services, the advertising money that is its lifeblood inexorably diminishes.

As a result this industry desperately needs to understand and work with innovators, not shut them out. Change is coming anyway, Hollywood may as well drive it and maintain some sort of control over the pace and nature of that change.