Seattle — Maneuvering in the face of the recent ruling against Aereo’s streaming broadcast TV service, MediaMall Technologies, developer of PlayOn media server software for streaming online videos to TVs and mobile devices, is offering what it called its own special “cable-killing deal.”
For a limited time, purchasers of MediaMall’s $69.99 lifetime license of PlayOn and PlayLater will receive a free Chromecast ($35 value) media player dongle in a bundle deal.
The company said its offer enables consumers to drop their cable subscriptions for a one-time $70 purchase price.
MediaMall sees its cable-cutting offer appealing in particular to former Aereo users and others looking to trim expenses on entertainment subscriptions and still enjoy many of the popular movies and TV programs those services carry.
Aereo lost a Supreme Court ruling last week against its service that charged a fee for providing antenna and cloud technology to enable subscribers to receive on mobile devices and smart TVs local TV station signals. Aereo paid no copyright fee to broadcasters. The court found Aereo was effectively a distributor of a public performance, like a cable system, not a facilitator of online access to free TV station signals and fair-use copying.
MediaMall said people looking for alternatives to multichannel video service subscriptions now have access to more than 100 channels of content, from CBS, NBC, ABC, Comedy Central and Hulu (no Hulu Plus subscription needed), through its Chromecast delivered system.
The PlayOn media server software provides an easy to navigate user interface and streams online videos to TVs, mobile devices and “virtually any streaming device.”
The DVR-like sister software, called PlayLater, lets users record streaming content for later playback.
The offering is similar to the system formerly provided by Aereo, but without access to live broadcast content.
An included PlayOn browser extension can cast videos from any PC browser to a TV without any web browser frames, the company said.
“PlayOn and PlayLater when used in conjunction with Chromecast is a really killer cable-cutting solution,” stated Jeff Lawrence, CEO, MediaMall Technologies. “With our Chromecast bundle deal, you can get rid of your cable subscription for only $70 — that’s it. You’ll never have to pay a cable bill again.”
