Aereo has a lot of plates spinning. The streaming TV startup just launched a huge marketing push in NY, along with the announcement of a $38 million funding round aimed at expansion to over 20 new cities in the coming months. And if that weren’t enough, Aereo is still in the midst of a fierce legal battle with network broadcasters.
Still, the company continues to juggle its issues, not least of which being partnership talks with various TV providers and ISPs to help expand Aereo expand its service into new markets.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Aereo has been chatting with AT&T, Dish, and DirecTV, but to no concrete ends yet. Sources told the WSJ that DirecTV was off-put by Aereo’s legal troubles, which have been ongoing since before the company’s launch and will likely last for a few more years.
Meanwhile, the WSJ reports that Dish Network fancies the idea of an Aereo acquisition or partnership, but isn’t ready to bite the bullet quite yet. The idea would center around smaller TV packages for a younger demographic.
AT&T is also said to be interested in Aereo, which may include some sort of data bundling alongside Aereo service. After all, Aereo is all about letting the user watch live or recorded television from any of their devices, anytime, anywhere.
Here’s what Aereo spokesperson Virginia Lam said in response to request for comment:
Aereo is interested in creating partnerships that provide flexibility and more choice for the consumer. It’s not news that we’ve been in engaged with discussions with potential partners – whether it’s content, device or distribution-related – and it’s something we’ll continue to explore. The bottom line is, we’re interested in partnerships that increase value to the consumer and enhance their overall experience.
Though Aereo has taken some time to expand, it seems that this legal battle with major network broadcasters could stand in the way of any shortcuts a new partnership might yield. Still, it’s hard to ignore Aereo’s technology, which lets users rent out a micro-antenna in a server farm and live stream content to watch now, or DVR it to watch later.
No wonder the network broadcasters are so upset.