Fox TV Network May Move to Cable as News Corp. Fights Aereo

There are those who predict the Internet will eventually kill television. Few expect broadcasters themselves to pull the plug. Yet Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. said on April 8 that it may end Fox’s 26-year run as a free broadcast channel if U.S. courts continue to allow Web startup Aereo to retransmit its costly programming. Aereo—backed by IAC Chairman Barry Diller—uses a network of antennas to obtain Fox’s free signal and resells it. If CBS, NBC Universal, and ABC follow suit and curtail free broadcast fare, it would hasten the end of the TV system that’s endured since CBS, NBC, and ABC went on the air in the ’40s. “We need to be able to be fairly compensated for our content,” News Corp. Chief Operating Officer Chase Carey said at an industry conference. “We can’t sit idly by and let an entity steal our signal. We will move to a subscription model if that’s our only recourse.”