​Today, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to a hearing for broadcasters’ bid to end Aereo, the streaming service that delivers television signals over the Web.

The announcement was made in response to a collective appeal from Disney’s ABC, 21st Century Fox, Comcast’s NBCUniversal and CBS Corp. These broadcasters stand by their claim that Aereo’s technology violates copyright law by using antennas to deliver their broadcast signals. Without paying fees to the broadcasters, they say Aereo is fragmenting and hurting their business model. The media companies worry that if Aereo is allowed to use their signals for free, other companies might try to avoid paying retransmission fees in the future, hurting potential revenue.

From the other side, Aereo is in favor of the Supreme Court’s hearing, encouraging the clarity that the court can provide so they can move forward. Currently the service is in 10 cities including Boston, New York and Atlanta, with plans for more than 15 new markets on the way.

The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) on Friday offered this statement about the court’s decision:

“NAB is pleased the Supreme Court will review this critically important case, and we are optimistic that broadcasters will prevail. Enshrined in the Constitution is the concept that content creators deserve to be protected from product theft. We look forward to the resolution of this case.”

Read more at Bloomberg.

Brief Take: The Supreme Court’s decision will affect the future of Aereo, and in some cases, the future of broadcast networks. A few of the broadcasters who have filed appeals have threatened to go to cable-only channels if Aereo is allowed to proceed.

[Image courtesy of Aereo]

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