Aereo Goes On Life Support, Shuts Down Boston Office

The last time we visited the whole "What's TV and what's Internet?" thing, the FCC was considering change to the way they treated both types of services. As legacy cable service starts to operate more like a digital offering, the lines are blurring. In that vein, we held out a small amount of hope Aereo would survive their setbacks, and hold out long enough to see the FCC make a bigger ruling in their favor. Aereo might have the same thing in mind, as they cut down staff significantly, closing at least one office entirely.

Effective November 12, Aereo will be shutting down it's offices in Boston, and laying off all 43 employees there. Speaking to several media outlets, Aereo spokesperson Virginia Lam had the following to say:

In an effort to reduce costs, we made the difficult decision to lay off some of our staff in Boston and New York. We are continuing to conserve resources while we chart our path forward. We are grateful to our employees for their loyalty, hard work and dedication. This was a difficult, but necessary step in order to preserve the company. We decline to comment further.

After fighting really hard to stay afloat, even going so far as to plead openly with the FCC, Aereo is still in terrible shape. A previous ruling all but eliminated their current business model, effectively saying they were a cable service in re-broadcasting shows.

Aereo's argument was that they were simply a conduit for users, but that didn't hold water with the FCC.

There's no timetable for the FCC to make any decisions on the proposed rule change that would put Aereo back in business, sadly. On life support, Aereo will need to see those changes take effect soon if they want to stick around.

Source: Beta Boston