Webinar Scheduled for Same Day as Supreme Court Hearing

Tuesday is a big day for broadcast, ad-supported TV, and pay TV — as in broadband/over-the-top/streaming, cable, satellite and telco TV — in America. That is because the United States Supreme Court begins the day with its oral hearing at 10 a.m. (ET) of the hyper-important Broadcasters vs. Aereo case. Several hours later at 1 p.m.. another critical airing takes place, in the form of the Autohop Case webinar, hosted and sponsored by Multichannel News and its sister publication, Broadcasting & Cable. More information and registration for the webinar is available here.


The 75-minute Autohop Case webinar is moderated by Jimmy Schaeffler, chairman and CSO of The Carmer Group consultancy. Panelists include John Hane, partner at Pillsbury, Winthrop, Shaw, Pittman; Seth Davidson, partner at Edwards Wildman Palmer LLP; John Bergmayer, senior staff attorney at Public Knowledge; and Jim Denney, vice president and general manager at TiVo. Thus Some of the critical questions that will be addressed during the Autohop webinar:

• What’s the relationship between Autohop and Aereo?

• What does history and precedent say about the outcomes of both cases?

• Does the Autohop litigation pose a threat to the Cablevision RS-DVR precedent?

• If more content starts to move on demand, or online, can cable companies start offering their own online services (in other cable companies’ territories)?

• Do broadcasters have an obligation to keep high-value content on the public airwaves?

• What is the role for broadcasters and affiliates if more content starts to be distributed online?

• How wedded are MVPDs to the linear channel model?

• If more content starts to move on demand, or online, can cable companies start offering their own online services (in other cable companies’ territories)?

• Who and what is impacted, and when?

• What about the consumer?

• Do people really skip ads that much when given the opportunity?

• Is there a common ground between the media owner’s expectation and the consumer’s expectations when it comes to commercials?

• What impact will the new media, e.g., broadband/Over-The-Top/streaming, have on the attitudes about advertising and time shifting?

• What is the interest of the rest of the MVPD universe – particularly cable operators – in the outcome of the Hopper litigation?

• What’s beyond the legal in both cases? I.e., what happens in the real world post-legal-decision-making?

• What are the prospects of additional settlements (beyond the recent Dish-Disney alliance reached in early March?)

• What if CBS, NBC, Fox and the like do not reach a settlement similar to the Dish-Disney settlement?


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