Tom Paine
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(Update 2/6:
Aereo reopens to new subscribers in New York.)
Aereo, the streaming subscription TV service that picks up over-the-air channels via a network of tiny antennas, said a few days ago it was "sold out" in New York City and couldn't add more subscribers for the time being.
Then,
on Monday Aereo's CEO confirmed it was also out of capacity in Atlanta and Miami.
CEO Chet Kanojia told the Boston Business Journal the the problem was due to "unexpectedly high demand in those markets." "We are hopeful that we will have more capacity coming online later this week or early next week in all those markets," Kanojia told the Business Journal's TechFlash newsletter. He indicated that these were not long-term scaling issues, but short-term problems occurring when demand in a given metro area approaches capacity faster than anticipated.
Broadband Reports originally broke the New York story on Friday.
I had speculated that Aereo might have been facing some short-term capital constraints prior to completing a $34 million funding round last month. Somebody must be paying the
bills for its monumental legal battles. Others have wondered whether Aereo's technology
might have problems scaling within metro areas, although I haven't seen any real analysis
on that. Some have raised concerns about Aereo's power consumption.
Kanojia also said Aereo received about 100 complaints about buffering problems during the Super Bowl, but attributed most of that to general congestion on the Web at the time. Kanojia said Aereo doesn't have much of a buffer to work with since it's broadcasting live content (unlike Netflix).
Despite various guesstimates, no one seems to have a solid idea of how many subscribers Aereo has. It is currently available in 11 US cities, and announced on Monday it would
launch in San Antonio on February 19. Philadelphia, which was originally scheduled
for last year, is expected to launch some time this year.
First Round Capital was an early investor in Aereo and participated in the most recent
round, although FRC's investments are likely relatively small. Barry Diller's IAC is probably the largest investor at this point.
