No, Aereo isn’t really claiming to be a true cable company

In an effort to survive, Aereo's throwing everything against the wall and hoping something -- anything -- sticks. Its latest tactic? To embrace the Supreme Court decision that effectively killed its existing business model, and to work within the confines of the ruling to arrive at an alternative that won't land the company in court again.

Aereo is now conceding that it is a cable company after all, after having argued the opposite point before the Supreme Court. The company now says it's willing to pay those licensing fees -- but to the Copyright Office, rather than to the broadcasters who were suing Aereo in the first place. In short, Aereo is trying to thread a very small needle: It wants to say it's just enough of a cable company that it qualifies for the benefits that come along with it (more on that shortly) but not so much of a cable company that it needs to pay expensive retransmission fees required of other cable companies.

If Aereo admits that it's a cable company in the eyes of the copyright law, what's to stop the FCC from branding Aereo as a cable company that has to pay retransmission fees? Aereo's only hope at avoiding that outcome rests on the FCC's historical reluctance to say whether online video services count as MVPDs.