Broadcasters fought tooth and nail against Aereo because they wanted to retain control of their content, but no one ever said the TV-streaming service wasn't a good idea.
Now one broadcaster, New York's Granite Broadcasting Corp., is taking up Aereo's mantle before its body is even in the ground - albeit with a slightly different model.
Granite, which operates 14 stations across the US, has teamed up with London tech company Motive Television to launch Tablet TV, a service that - duh - transmits live TV content to iOS and Android tablets.
Tablet TV is deploying first in San Francisco, with other cities to follow, according to cable newsletter FierceCable.
T-Pod touch
So what makes Tablet TV different from Aereo's service, which the Supreme Court deemed to be illegal?
Simple: whereas Aereo charged users a subscription fee to broadcast live TV directly to their tablets, laptops and other devices, Tablet TV requires them to buy their own antenna, called a T-Pod.
The rechargeable T-Pod picks up over-the-air TV signals and transmits them to tablets that are physically within 100 feet of it.
Granted, Aereo did survive for a while on the argument that its subscribers were in fact renting individual antennae that just happened to be located at Aereo locations around the country, but that ultimately didn't hold up.
Tablet TV's service also includes a chat client and channel guide, and lets users change channels with a swipe. It sounds like it could be useful for some, and it shouldn't run into any legal issues if Granite Broadcasting Corp. sticks to streaming its own content.
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