Aereo is using a unique structure to get around some older legal rulings, but essentially what it is doing is broadening the way people access broadcast TV — and in the process taking some of the control over distribution from the broadcasters. Folks can record shows and access broadcast TV on any device iPads, iPhones, AppleTV and Roku devices via the web — something that is difficult for many subscribers who may not have a cable subscription or who want to see older episodes of shows that might not still be playing on the broadcasters’ own web sites. PC and Android support is coming later this summer.

This allows time shifting, storing shows and fast forwarding through advertising. It also undercuts broadcasters’ value to cable companies that pay retransmission fees for access to some broadcast channels. For example, a person using Aereo could have watched the Olympics opening ceremony (yes, the edited NBC version) a day later even if they didn’t have cable. For people– and there are more than you might think — who can’t get access to the over the air TV signals (it can be challenging for apartments dwellers or those in valleys) this would have given them an option outside of buying cable.

Unfortunately for those outside of New York City, the Aereo service is not available to you (the company is promising to expand soon). But for those who can get it, here’s the new pricing plan:

At $1 a day, this means people on the go, could use their iPad and a Wi-Fi network to watch a one-time sporting event in real time, or record it for later. At $8 a month it offers a credible alternative to Hulu, which also offers many broadcast television shows and is owned by some of the broadcasters. In fact, Aereo might be considered better since you can skip ads and if you record the shows they won’t slip off the service after a week or two. Plus, if Hulu goes to a model where users can only access certain shows if they have a cable subscription it becomes much less valuable to cord cutters.

Judging from this pricing plan, Aereo is both using a marketing gimmick with its one hour free, but it’s also clearly stating a value for over the air broadcast content. And that value isn’t one that the broadcasters (and likely content owners will like).

And once again, U.S. consumers don’t get it. Sure, people are frustrated because they can’t easily stream the Olympics online without a cable subscription, and there will always be sports fans who don’t want the edited version of The Games with the life stories on athletes and dramatic cuts. But frankly, for now, NBC doesn’t really care what those people want.

How dare @NBCOlympics cut the 7/7 tribute from the #Olympics opening ceremony. Disgraceful. ow.ly/czaOk—
Jamie Klenetsky (@jamieklenetsky) July 28, 2012

NBC paid $1.18 billion for the right to broadcast the Olympics and it will be a cold day in hell before it dilutes the amount it can charge advertisers or the value it has to cable providers. In many ways, even though NBC depends on huge audiences to justify the rates it’s charging advertisers, it can afford to alienate some of them. And it’s worth noting that there are probably millions of happy families who watched the opening ceremony last night and had little idea it could be any other way.

In the U.S., people who want to stream are a highly vocal minority, but it’s a minority that is growing. And while NBC may not care that I — as one of the between 3.6 or 9 million cord cutters — couldn’t authenticate to see the opening ceremony via the web or streaming, maybe someone should.

NBC broadcast an edited and time-delayed version of the opening ceremony last night over the air, but I couldn’t see that either. I can’t get over-the-air TV since the switch from analog to digital TV signals in 2009, because my home just doesn’t seem to be in the right location. Even satellites don’t work. The only way I could watch NBC’s broadcast of the ceremony was if I paid for cable, but that’s not something I want to do just to watch a once-every-two-year event. And anyway, I shouldn’t have to buy cable to see the opening ceremony, since NBC is using the public airwaves for free to deliver broadcast TV. Glenn Fleishman via Twitter suggested that the FCC ought to investigate this, and maybe it should.

I believe FCC should look into NBC, which broadcasts over air, restricting Olympics video online to cable subscribers. Fundamentally wrong—
Glenn Fleishman (@GlennF) July 28, 2012

But really what I think needs to occur is a realization that until the business models right themselves in the TV industry, consumers, especially cord cutters, are going to get screwed out of some content. It’s not “fair,” but as the population of people who demand streaming grows, and they in turn are seen a valuable demographic to advertisers, then perhaps the next Summer Games will give consumers more of what they want, where and when they want it.

Image courtesy of Shutterstock user Padmayogini
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The app, which launched in beta on Thursday, allows people to share and comment on video as they watch it — potentially allowing for real time commentary and conversation to happen directly on Facebook. And with the event taking place in London this summer, the BBC will be the official Olympic broadcaster and have direct control of every single feed of video pouring out of the Games.

There’s one catch, however: like the corporation’s iPlayer service, which is mainly limited to British audiences, users outside the U.K. need not apply.

The app is already up and running with live video from the Wimbledon tennis championships, which features six live streams from around the courts — but by the time the Games kick off in a month, that will quadruple to 24 streams all viewable inside the social network.

In a blog post, product manager Aaron Scullion explained what the Facebook integration could offer that the ordinary iPlayer service would not.

The app is a BBC Sport service, but is entirely delivered within Facebook.
This means that we can use the social functionality Facebook offers to enhance the experience.
For example, when you watch a match in Facebook, you can see how many people – and how many people you’re friends with on Facebook – are watching that same event.

As well as that, the fact that you’re watching the match is shared with your friends, via an update in their Facebook news feed. (You can easily remove each update with a single click if you don’t want to share at a particular time).

You can also see which matches are proving most popular on Facebook, and switch to a different video stream on that basis.

The corporation is pitching this as a way to help license fee payers get more value out of the Games, but the reality is that it’s also part of the BBC’s increasing ambition to make its video available on every platform. It also, interestingly, includes advertising — though that will be withdrawn when the Olympics take place due to rules put in place by the International Olympic Committee. However, as far as the rules from the BBC itself, the situation is less clear cut. The BBC says it won’t make any money from this venture (it does not advertise inside the U.K.) but clearly it opens a door to a service that is available outside Britain and runs ads, just as BBC News does on its international site, for example.

It’s a significant move that may not necessarily broaden the BBC’s reach — it is already one of the most ubiquitous brands in Britain — but could provide a lifeline for athletics fans stuck at work while the Olympics take place across the country.

Olympic rings photograph copyright Shutterstock/Steve Heap

According to tickets’ entry terms for event spectators:

“Images, video and sound recordings of the Games taken by a Ticket Holder cannot be used for any purpose other than for private and domestic purposes and a Ticket Holder may not license, broadcast or publish video and/or sound recordings, including on social networking websites and the Internet more generally.”

Athletes, too, are prohibited from taking still photos, video or audio for anything but personal use, according to guidelines which date back to 2010.

It may seem incongruous for the emerging social media generation, but the IOC wants to protect the broadcast rights won by license holders including NBC, which is paying $4.38 billion for exclusive U.S. coverage of four Olympic Games.

And it also wants to ensure the hundreds of accredited journalists who will descend on London get their money’s worth, retaining their historic role as documenters-in-chief. The committee’s guidelines for athletes warn them off overlapping media, too:

“It is acceptable for a participant or any other accredited person to do a personal posting, blog  or tweet. However, any such postings, blogs or tweets must be in a first-person, diary-type format and should not be in the role of a journalist.”

In a world where lines between consumers and producers have blurred, the Olympics is relying on familiar old lines of demarcation to safeguard the Olympics as we know it, bankrolled by large broadcast deals and massive sponsorship arrangements.

But that doesn’t mean the Olympics is trying to smother social media entirely…

• It has launched its own Athletes’ Hub to aggregate tweets and Facebook status updates from over 1,000 participating athletes.
• And, showing it does want fans to post some photos, the tournament has launched a web contest called ICopyU (ironic, given the broadcast copyright concerns) that encourages viewers to mimic famous athletes’ poses.

Will this officially-mandated social media strategy win out over the threat of crowd-produced content? The IOC says it “will continue to monitor Olympic on-line content”.

But even the tournament appears resigned to losing some control. The chairman of local Olympic delivery agency Locog, Keith Mills, tells BBC News:

“Media rights are sold – can we police everything these days? Absolutely not, the internet has changed the world and we’re not going to be silly.

“But the reality is that we live in an internet world where Facebook downloads and uploads are happening every day of the week and there’s not much we can do about it.”

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock user [anbibyte].