This week, ABC will become the first major broadcaster unveil an app that allows users in New York and Philadelphia to live-stream local programming. Content from WABC and WPVI will be available first, with plans to introduce it in other markets later this year, The New York Times‘ Brian Stelter reports:

ABC, a unit of the Walt Disney Company, said the live stream would be available in the other six cities where it owns stations sometime this summer. It is also in talks with the companies that own ABC’s more than 200 affiliates to make the “live” button work in their markets.

ABC finished the first of its affiliate deals, with Hearst Television, on Sunday afternoon; it said the live streams would work in Hearst’s 13 markets, including Boston and Pittsburgh, in the coming months.

The app is also a way for ABC to get ahead of Aereo, the streaming television service that allows subscribers to watch over-the-air programming on Internet-connected devices. Anne Sweeney, the president of the Disney-ABC Television Group, told The New York Times that plans for ABC’s app were in place before Aereo was launched.

IAC/InterActiveCorp founder and chairman Barry Diller sat down with Bloomberg TV’s Willow Bay at the Milken Global Conference Monday. Diller, the primary backer of Aereo, talked about the future of television in an interview that aired on “Lunch Money” (video above).

“The law of the U.S. is that if you have an antenna, broadcasters must provide a signal that you can receive without any interference. That is the right of Americans who gave licenses to broadcasters. That is the covenant. We are providing a technological method for them to receive them,” Diller said. “In 1972 or 1973, [Broadcasters said] the video recorder was an illegal thing. They went to the supreme court. And of course we all enjoy video records.”

Barry Diller believes Aereo, the streaming TV company that he backs, is on the right side of copyright law, and he plans to aggressively market the service as the company continues its legal battle with broadcasters.

“The ability for a consumer, for an American, to receive broadcast over the air… is their right,” Diller told Bloomberg’s Jon Erlichman (video above). “And we’re just simply a technologically advantaged way of doing it.”

Right now, Aereo is only available in New York but Diller said that the service will be in every major American city in 2013.

Aereo, the streaming TV service backed by Barry Diller, scored a victory in court this week as a federal judge ruled that the company could continue to operate while it fights broadcasters over the use of their programming.

A group of 17 network broadcasters had combined on a motion for a preliminary injunction against Aereo, which allows users to watch and record broadcast channels through their digital devices.  The service launched in the New York City area in March and currently costs $12 per month.

“This isn’t just a win for Aereo, it’s also a significant win for consumers who are demanding more choice and flexibility in the way they watch television,” Aereo CEO and founder Chet Kanojia said in a statement. Read more

The Barry Diller-backed streaming TV service Aereo recently scored a victory in federal court when a judge dismissed one of the legal complaints filed by broadcasters against the company, The Wall Street Journal reports.

According to court documents, the judge dismissed the broadcasters’ unfair competition complaint, leaving Aereo to only face claims of copyright infringement in the case.

Although the decision was a decided victory for Aereo, the dismissed complaint represents the least significant of the claims brought against the company by broadcasters. Read more

When streaming TV service Skitter launched in Portland in March, the company set itself apart from the Barry Diller-backed TV startup Aereo because it had existing carriage agreements with broadcasters.

Now it looks like those agreements aren’t holding up.

Multichannel News reports that the ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox affiliates in Portland demanded that their signals be pulled from Skitter while they review their retrans agreements with the company. And Skitter has complied. Read more

Aereo, the streaming TV service that launched last week in New York, has filed a second countersuit against companies that own stations in the market.

Reuters reports that the company, which is backed by former TV executive Barry Diller, filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan this week against News Corp’s Fox, the Public Broadcasting Service, Univision, as well as WPIX and WNET.

The lawsuit is similar to the one Aereo filed last week against CBS, ABC/Disney, and NBCU/Comcast, and comes in response to the companies’ claims of copyright infringement. Read more

Aereo recently debuted its streaming TV service in the New York market, with plans to roll it out to over 75 additional markets within a year.

As Aereo faces multiple copyright lawsuits from the broadcasting companies that own TV stations in New York, we took the service for a test drive to see what all the fuss is about (video above).

Aereo launched its streaming TV service today in New York, even as the companies behind every major station in the market do their best to shut it down.

For $12 a month, Aereo offers subscribers the ability to watch live, broadcast TV online, and to record up to 40 hours of programming on a cloud-based DVR.

“Technology is changing rapidly and consumers have embraced innovation that simplifies access to entertainment,” Aereo founder and CEO Chet Kanojia said.  “People no longer want to be tethered to their TVs or cable boxes.  Consumers are demanding more flexibility and value; Aereo delivers just that.” Read more

A little over a week after the companies behind every major New York TV station filed lawsuits against Aereo, alleging copyright infringement, the streaming TV startup has filed a countersuit.

Reuters reports that Aereo, which is set to launch its service this week in New York, is seeking a declaration that it does not infringe on the broadcasters’ copyrights.

In a keynote address Sunday at SXSW, Barry Diller, whose company IAC/Interactive is behind Aereo, predicted that the streaming TV service would be available in 75 to 100 cities within a year. He also added that he expects there to be “a great fight” between Aereo and established broadcasters such as Fox and CBS. Read more