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Why should they settle for third tier cable stations? I want HBO, Showtime, ESPN. If you're in the clear rebroadcasting Fox News you're in the clear with ESPN. How could -or would- you possibly see a difference? Copyrighted content is copyrighted content.

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The issue is that they'd need an agreement with these stations. They don't need one with, say, NBC, because NBC is broadcasting their content over the air, and Aereo's arrays of tiny antennas are all receiving them. To do a similar thing for a cable station you'd need one cable subscription per user, which is pretty likely to wreck their business model. Third-tier stations looking for more viewers are more likely to license their stuff cheaply.

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