Cable-Killing Aereo Is Coming to Boston!
(Having an Aereo account is like putting a giant antenna on your roof. Photo via Thinkstock)
Good news for everyone tired of handing over a quarter of their paycheck to the cable company: Aereo is launching in Boston in this spring!
For those unfamiliar with Aereo, let me give you a quick primer: The company, which launched in New York last February, pipes over-the-air broadcast TV stations to your house via the Internet. That means that you can easily watch local stations like CBS, Fox, NBC, ABC, and PBS, as well as a few others, on your TV, smartphone, or tablet. It also has a built-in DVR, meaning that you can record 20 to 40 hours of your favorite shows. The best part: It only costs $8 a month, or $80 a year for the service.
Such a service, you’ll imagine, is not without controversy. Indeed, 17 TV stations have sued Aereo, alleging that it competes with them by providing unlimited access to their content. But so far, the lawsuits haven’t gone very far, and haven’t discouraged the company from receiving nearly $60 million in financing—including from billionaire Barry Diller.
And granted, you could just buy an antenna from an electronics store and start grabbing those over-the-air channels yourself. But Aereo’s convenience, not to mention the recording function, make it an easy TV solution for anyone who doesn’t want to deal with the hassle of the antenna. You’ll need to maintain your Internet service, but since Aereo is just $80 a year, you’ll be saving major cash. (Currently, the average cable bill is $86 a month—and is expected to hit $200 by 2020.) Patch it together with Hulu and a Netflix account, and I doubt you’ll miss cable television at all.
