Have You Seen These Boxes In Brooklyn?

Somewhere in the wilds of Brooklyn, maybe on the roof of a warehouse or along the waterfront, sits an array of hundreds of thousands of tiny TV antennas the size of a thumbnail. The antennas are organized onto boxes "the size of a dish washer." Each box can hold thousands of the little antennas.

The boxes and the thousands of tiny antennas belong to Aereo, a new Internet television service.

According to the New York Times, when Aereo becomes available in New York City in mid-March, the service will stream all of the programming of the major networks (ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC) to phones, tablets and Internet-connected TVs.

According to Gigaom, New York-based Aereo believes that by giving each user their own tiny antenna (and a DVR in the cloud), it can bypass legal challenges that have brought down companies in the past which tried to repackage free, over-the-air network television.

Prospective Aereo customers must be New York City residents and may register at aereo.com. Beginning March 14, members can get a 30-day free trial and the membership fee is $12 per month (if it can survive the legal battles ahead).

Barry Diller, creator of the Fox television network, is on the company's board.

Photo courtesy of Gigacom


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