Aereo Offers Streaming Broadcast Channels To New York City

Tweet

A new service is landing soon in New York City, and hopefully will branch out from there. It’s called Aereo, and it’s going to offer up a solution to one of the biggest deficiencies in the streaming video landscape. Specifically, it will be offering streaming network television to viewers who want to cut the cable.

Aereo provides users with a proprietary antenna and a DVR, which will allow users to stream about 20 local broadcast networks when the service goes live starting March 14th. You’ll have access to a variety of standard network feeds, like CBS, NBC, Fox, PBS, and the CW, among others, and not only will you be able to stream in HD, you’ll also be able to store fully 40 hours of video on the included DVR.

It’s geared toward users who don’t want or can’t afford a cable package, or only buy certain television shows via iTunes or the like. Aereo’s CEO and founder, Chet Kanojia, went on record to say:

“…if you have this and you have Netflix, you absolutely have the ability to not have a standard cable subscription.”

Cable cutting has always been something of a strange enterprise–while there’s plenty of content out there (I personally love talking about the statistic that says YouTube essentially gets nearly a lifetime of video every week, on average), it’s not always the content people want to watch. But with a service like Aereo in play, which will cost only $12 a month, it’s certainly going to afford cable cutters a great new source of content. It’s not quite as good as the massive array of free content found on, say, YouTube or Hulu, but it’s still a great resource for people who want network content.

But what do you guys think about this one? Figure that a service like Aereo might do well where you live? Or does the thought of paying $12 a month for commercial-laced content leave you cold? No matter what you think, head on down to the comments section and tell us what you think!