Scot Wingo, CEO at ChannelAdvisor, asked me why I wanted to learn about the book business when we encountered each other at a local shop where I work a second job.

“What makes you think there will be a book business in the future,” he asked.

Excellent question.

As the Aereo vs. broadcasters case unfolds before the Supreme Court on Tuesday, its CEO defends the right of innovation and says no industry is “sacred.” But as more and more traditional businesses disappear, who really are the losers?

Us.

It’s getting harder and harder to find a real music store. The video stores have all but disappeared like the dinosaurs. Broadcasters claim that Aereo and its delivery of TV via tiny antennas linked to the Internet pose a clear and present danger to their future since cable TV firms pay for the rights to distribute their content.


More WRALTechWire coverage:

  • Aereo case heads to Supreme Court on Tuesday.
  • Aereo’s CEO makes his case that no companies are “sacred” from threat of progress.

Raleigh-Durham is listed as one of the markets where Aereo has said since last year that coverage is “coming soon.” Current markets include: New York, Boston, Atlanta, Miami, Houston, Dallas, Detroit, Baltimore, Cincinnati, San Antonio, Austin.

Yet Aereo founder and CEO Chet Kanojia’s legal team will argue Tuesday that the Constitution protects no companies from the threat of being changed or put out of business by technology.

Perhaps that is true. But at some point technology threatens to destroy the “seed corn” we all need for entertainment – if not survival.

Wingo certainly has taken advantage of technology to help firms large and small maximize selling of products and services over the Internet. His company went public a year ago, and its shares have surged as buyers and sellers continue to deepen their embrace of Internet ecommerce.

But online success comes at a price as more and more “brick and mortar” stores disappear.

WRALTechWire is an example of technology destruction.

Look at what has happened to the newspaper business as a result of the Internet.

Traditional print is headed for the trash bin of history. (Newspaper industry revenues declined again last year, just in case you missed it.)

Print magazines and journals are headed that way as well.

Adapt or Die

Thankfully, the “print” media is trying to find some way to survive by embracing the Internet itself. Whether it will remains an open question since online ads don’t generate the revenue traditional glossy or print ads did.

Book publishers are dealing with multiple threats but appear to be finding a balance through ebooks. Published at a fraction of the cost of a traditional paper product, ebooks offer huge profit margins.

The same with CDs. Apple’s iTunes revolutionized the music business (along with Napster), and plenty of songwriters as well as bands keep churning out hits.

However, if you try to find a CD beyond the latest chart buster at most local stores, you are flat out of luck.

The corner bookstore, the corner music store, the corner anything-you-want store were already being gutted by those monstrous “boxes” people flock to 24 hours a day for the sake of saving a few cents per item.

Which brings us to Aereo.

if Aereo is successful in its Supreme Court fight with broadcasters and their allies (including cable companies), broadcasters say they will lose revenue.

Love revenue and they will have to cut costs. 

That means less content.

That means we as the public lose.

Whether Aereo is right or wrong is not the point I am arguing.

What I am trying to say is that the more we as consumers embrace new technology to cut costs, we also lose.

No Newspaper, Less TV News?

Imagine the Triangle without a daily newspaper.

I was stunned when during a recent visit to my hometown of Indianapolis I opened the Indianapolis Star and found that a quarter of its contents came from USA Today. I didn’t read The Star for USA Today content. i wanted local news.

Imagine the Triangle with less news from its local TV outlets.

That business is cut-throat. 

Then there is the impact on the cable TV business.

Who doesn’t like to complain about cable regardless of who the provides are? But Aereo is not the only threat cable faces.

Shelby-based fiber network provider RST Fiber plans to offer its TV menu ala carte. 

Break up the bundles and cable suffers. 

You may shout with glee, but you should understand that there will be a tipping point at which you will have even less choice as more content providers disappear.

Aereo’s CEO Speaks Out

In a recent letter sent to Aereo customers and people waiting for service (such as in the Triangle), Aereo’s Kanojia sent an email titled:

“Standing up for Innovation, Progress and Technology”

“On April 22, Aereo will present our case to the United States Supreme Court. We remain steadfast in our conviction that Aereo’s cloud-based antenna and DVR technology falls squarely within the law. We have every hope and confidence that the Court will validate and preserve a consumer’s right to access local over-the-air television using an individual antenna, make a personal recording with a DVR, and watch that recording on a device of their choice,” he wrote.

Aereo has launched a website to help make its case.

“At ProtectMyAntenna.org, you’ll find court briefs, amicus briefs and court decisions related to the Supreme Court case. You can also sign up for updates to stay in touch with the Aereo team,” he says.

“What is at stake in this case is much bigger than Aereo. We believe that consumers are entitled to use a modern, cloud-based, version of an antenna and DVR and that consumers should not be constrained to 1950’s era technology to watch free-to-air broadcast television. The broadcasters’ positions in this case, if sustained, would impair cloud innovation and threaten the myriad benefits to individuals, companies, and the economy at large of the advances in cloud computing and cloud storage. Several amicus briefs including those from CCIA and Mozilla, Public Knowledge, the Consumer Electronics Association and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, directly address these issues.”

Aereo may very well prevail. If so, broadcasting and cable is likely to never be the same.

But just as in the case of book stores, music stores and newspapers, these content pillars will have to find a way to adapt – or die.

Just remember. You as the bottom-line-buying consumer can’t escape part of the blame if some day a newscast disappears just as your local Blockbuster did and your bookstore just might. 

Progress comes at a price – and we all pay it, one way or another.