Centris: Four in Ten Would Drop Pay TV for Aereo

HORSHAM: As Aereo awaits its Supreme Court hearing, new research supports pay-TV operators' fears that the streaming service could potentially erode their market share.

The marketing science firm Centris surveyed its Evolution of Video Community (EOVC) to gauge interest in Aereo. It found that four in ten pay-TV households would be likely to cancel their TV service and replace it with Aereo if it was available in their market. An additional 13 percent were undecided.

The threat is stronger among pay-TV households that currently subscribe to an online video streaming service; 45 percent said they are likely to and 17 percent are not sure if they would replace their pay-TV offering with Aereo.

Aereo is currently available in fewer than 20 markets in the U.S. The service is under fire from broadcast networks that want Aereo to pay retransmission fees for the content it streams, while Aereo says the fees do not apply because user-operated individual antennas are similar to personal recording tools. The case will go in front of the Supreme Court on April 22.