Aereo to the FCC: Let us join the cable companies we tried to replace

The Federal Communications Commission is weighing whether to extend regulations for satellite television providers, cable companies and other "multichannel video providers" to Aereo and other "linear" online video distributors. (Linear distributors are considered distinct from on-demand services like Netflix or Hulu, so those services aren't likely to be affected by the rule.)

In a recent meeting, Aereo told the FCC that it would be willing to accept those regulations. "Online linear channel streaming services have the ability," Aereo wrote in its FCC filing describing the meeting, "to comply with the Commission’s regulatory obligations imposed on MVPDs, such as program carriage, emergency alerts, equal opportunity employment and closed captioning." What Aereo left unsaid here is really the biggest piece of news: By accepting the label of MVPD, Aereo would also need to start negotiating with broadcasters over content, or "retransmission" fees -- which is precisely what Aereo's original business model was designed to avoid. (Other MVPDs pay broadcasters money for the right to retransmit free, over-the-air television signals to their subscribers.)