Two major sports leagues say they'll take their balls and go home if streaming TV service Aereo is deemed legal.
The National Football League and Major League Baseball filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court this week, saying they'll stop broadcasting live games over the air if Aereo wins its legal battles, Variety reports. Broadcasting would become less attractive, the leagues said, without the exclusive retransmission rights they currently enjoy.
"The option for copyright holders will be to move that content to paid cable networks (such as ESPN and TNT) where Aereo-like services cannot hijack and exploit their programming without authorization," the leagues said.
In other words, sports leagues like being able to tightly control how people can view live games, cutting deals with wireless carriers and TV providers for streaming rights. Aereo takes that control away by letting users stream over-the-air broadcasts to phones, tablets, laptops or set-top boxes in exchange for a monthly subscription.
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