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Viewers set to change channels

By Staff | May 15, 2013

The digital revolution reached New Hampshire this week. It will be streamed – not televised.

Aereo, a new streaming-broadcast service, became available in the Nashua-area for the first time Wednesday, bringing welcomed competition to the local cable market.

Comcast, the region’s only cable provider, has dominated the subscriber numbers in southern New Hampshire for several years. Cable prices have risen sharply during that time.

Now, Aereo, which spread to the Boston area from New York, will allow local subscribers to select their own programs and stream them, either live or delayed, on Internet-capable TVs, smart phones, tablets and other devices.

The service, which became available Wednesday to advance subscribers only, uses small tiny antennas to capture traditional, over-the-air broadcasts and streams them online as digital files. News Corp and other broadcast and cable companies have challenged Aereo in court, suing the company for allegedly stealing their signals without proper licensing.

The lawsuits have met with varying results so far. Regardless of the outcome, the streaming service represents a step forward into the new digital age.

Several cable companies have reported considered introducing an a la carte payment option, in which customers could choose which stations or programs they want. Sen. John McCain introduced legislation last week proposing incentives for cable providers who offer such a system. While the networks have dragged their feet, they have increasingly lost customers to non-traditional services like Netflix, Hulu and Amazon, which not only stream programs but are now beginning to offer their own original content.

Aereo, which will be available to the general public later this month, represents the next step forward in television technology. We hope it will bring more changes to cable providers here and around the country.

We’ll be watching.

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