A group of major broadcasters, in a cert petition filed Friday, asked the U.S. Supreme Court tornoverturn the decision of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to not grant a preliminary injunctionrnagainst Aereo. The Supreme Court’s intervention is “urgently needed,” said the filing. “This Court hasrnhad little tolerance for business models built on the for-profit exploitation of the copyrighted works of others.rnAnd this Court has repeatedly recognized the important public interest in protecting the viability ofrnover-the-air broadcast television.” Broadcaster attempts to get the court to hear their case against streamingrnTV service Aereo aren’t likely to succeed while their cases in other jurisdictions are still in progress,rnsaid Stifel Nicolaus and Guggenheim Partners analyst Paul Gallant in separate emails. "Given the seemingrnnon-ripeness of the current court rulings (which are all preliminary injunctions, not post-trial rulings),rnit may not be easy for broadcasters to persuade the Supreme Court to hear the case,” said Gallant. Aereo'srncase in the 2nd Circuit (CD April 2 p8) is still proceeding on the merits in U.S. District Court in NewrnYork, and Aereo and its competitor FilmOn X are still embroiled in ongoing court cases in California(CDrnAug 29 p5), Utah (CD Oct 9 p21), Washington, D.C.(CD Sept 9 p18), and Massachusetts (CD July 17rnp6). In Massachusetts, a federal judge Thursday also denied a preliminary injunction sought against Aereornby Hearst. “Broadcasters will have to overcome general Supreme Court reluctance to address cases atrnthe preliminary injunction phase,” said Stifel Nicolaus. Both analyses agreed that the prospects for highrncourt review could change if the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rules against FilmOn in its preliminaryrninjunction appeal there, creating a circuit split. ”It would be the Second Circuit (Aereo is legal) vs. NinthrnCircuit (Aereo is illegal),” said Gallant. “And resolving Circuit splits is a leading reason why the Courtrnagrees to devote its scarce resources to any given case.”
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