Ivi, a Seattle startup that was attempting to shake up the media industry by rebroadcasting TV programming over the Internet, was delivered a serious setback today when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear its case. A federal judge ordered the company to curtail its live, streaming TV service in 2011, a service which allowed customers to gain access to TV programming for just $4.99.
Last summer, the company lost an attempt in front of the U.S. Court of Appeals to have the injunction overturned. Today’s decision is a more serious setback, and could be the end of the legal road for Ivi.
The company issued this statement:
TV is broken and stifling innovation isn’t going to fix it. There’s too much at stake to allow copyright conglomerates to ruin the opportunity to gracefully innovate to new business models rather than facing utter demise. Did they learn nothing from the music industry? This is why the FCC must step up and take action.
The company suggests that the FCC issue a ruling prohibiting cable and satellite TV providers from engaging in “unfair methods of competition or deceptive acts and practices” with regard to online video distributors, as well as open up device competition.
Plaintiffs in the case included some of the country’s top media companies, including American Broadcasting Companies, Disney Enterprises, CBS Broadcasting, NBC Universal, Telemundo Network, Major League Baseball, Cox Media and others.
AdWeek notes that today’s victory could also be a victory for the media companies in a legal fight with Barry Diller-backed TV video service Aereo, which has not been forced to shut down and is planning to expand its live video streaming service into 23 cities this year.
