The Legal War on Traditional Cable Companies Continues

Remember Aereo, the company trying to provide select TV programs and movies using alternatives to traditional cable TV programming?  That company went bankrupt after a U.S.  Supreme Court ruling last year.

A federal court in Los Angeles just ruled that online TV provider FilmOn X should be allowed to transmit the programs of the nation’s large broadcasters such as ABC, CBS and Fox online, albeit not on TV screens.  See Fox Television Stations, Inc. v. FilmOn X, LLC, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, No. 12-cv-6921. Of course, the traditional broadcasters have been aggressively opposing such services and the litigation so far.  Recognizing the huge commercial consequences of his ruling, Judge Wu certified the case for an immediate appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Said FilmOn’s lawyer in an interview: “The broadcasters have been trying to keep their foot on the throat of innovation.  The court’s decision … is a win for technology and the American public.” 

The ultimate outcome will, of course, to a very large extent or perhaps exclusively depend on an interpretation of the Copyright Act and not so much contracts law as such, but the case is still a promising step in the direction of allowing consumers to enter into contracts for only what they actually need or want and not, at bottom, what giant companies want to charge consumers to protect income streams obtained through yesteryear’s business methods.  Currently, many companies still “bundle” TV packages instead of allowing customers to select individual stations.  In an increasingly busy world, this does not seem to make sense anymore.  Time will tell what happens in this area after the appeal to the Ninth Circuit and other developments.  Personally, I have no doubt that traditional broadcasting companies will have to give in to new purchasing trends or lose their positions on the market.