Chicago Business

Aereo may be gravely wounded, but the idea behind it has plenty of life. Aereo -- the broadcast television retransmission service ruled illegal by the US Supreme Court -- saw opportunity in consumers' desire to escape the cable television bundle. It enabled customers to get channels they want without paying for a lot of others they never watch.

As just about anybody with a television knows, cable companies have pulled off the difficult trick of forcing people to buy stuff they don't want. Most of us pay for a lot more channels than we actually watch. I don't even know how many channels I get. I do know my cable company has raised my monthly bill steadily for years without providing much new programming that interests me. How do they get away with it?

By forcing us to buy programs we don't want in order to get the ones we want. As Aereo demonstrated, digital technologies make it possible to offer select channels at prices far lower than cable companies charge. Aereo also proved plenty of people would rather pick and choose than buy the bundle.