Comcast vs. NBCUniversal: The Aereo Question

Comcast and NBCUniversal

Comcast and NBCUniversalAre Comcast’s cable business and its NBCUniversal entertainment unit on the same page when it comes to the Aereo legal battle? That’s a question worth asking in the wake of Friday’s petition by major broadcasters seeking a Supreme Court review of the case over the online TV-streaming service. As close watchers of the case will remember, Aereo’s legal defense relies in part on a precedent established several years ago in another long-running legal battle, this time between Cablevision Systems and major entertainment companies. That case was over Cablevision’s desire to offer a so-called network digital video recorder, a cloud-based service that offered Cablevision subscribers the benefits of a DVR without the need to have a DVR device in the home. Cablevision won the case and the Supreme Court in 2009 declined to hear the media companies’ appeal.

Read the full story at The Wall Street Journal.

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