Aereo cable service appeal denied

A US court of appeals has struck a fresh blow to banned US TV streaming service Aereo as it attempts to reposition itself as a cable service.

In a mandate filed by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, Aereo was denied the further consideration of the issues relating to its Supreme Court injunction.

The filing said that Aereo would instead have to take up the matter with a district court.

The news, which was reported first by the Washington Post, comes after Aereo argued in July that it can continue to operate as a ‘cable system’, and should be entitled it a statutory licence to transmit content.

At the end of June, the US Supreme Court ruled by a majority of six to three that Aereo’s strategy of charging customers a monthly fee for retransmitted streams of US broadcast channels violated copyright and should stop.

Aereo’s legal defence to that point had hinged on the argument that it should not be considered a cable system, exempting it from paying re-transmission fees and royalties to the broadcasters and channels that it was distributing.

However, Aereo argued that based on the Supreme Court’s decision, which deemed the service to be “for all practical purposes a traditional cable system” it should now be entitled to a licence to operate as such.

Aereo has not commented on the latest court ruling.