No value in Aereo, says Bewkes

Barry Diller-backed online TV redistribution platform has little intrinsic value and will not present a threat even if it wins its legal battle with broadcasters, according to Time Warner chairman and CEO Jeff Bewkes, speaking at the FT Digital Media conference this morning.

Aereo could only provide free-to-air broadcast channels and had a very poor proposition even if it wins the legal argument, said Bewkes. “It’s charging $8 so you can have them on-demand – that’s all there is,” he said.

Aereo recently won a court victory rejecting claims by firms including Disney and CBS that the service should be shut down.

A ruling by the second circuit court of appeals in New York upheld a previous decision, denying an injunction against the firm for distributing broadcast television over the web.

Last year Aereo was hit by lawsuits from 17 broadcasters including Fox, Univision, ABC, NBC, CBS, alleging that the service infringed their copyrights. They claimed that Aereo should not be allowed to retransmit television stations over the web without licensing the content from content owners or receiving consent from the TV signal owners.