When streaming TV service Skitter launched in Portland in March, the company set itself apart from the Barry Diller-backed TV startup Aereo because it had existing carriage agreements with broadcasters.
Now it looks like those agreements aren’t holding up.
Multichannel News reports that the ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox affiliates in Portland demanded that their signals be pulled from Skitter while they review their retrans agreements with the company. And Skitter has complied.
With the hopes of bringing its streaming TV service to additional markets in the near future, Skitter quietly unveiled the service in the Portland, charging subscribers $12 a month for the ability to watch local broadcast channels over the internet using set-top boxes, such as Roku.
Previously, Skitter had provided its internet broadcasting solution to small telco operators, which is why it had carriage agreements in place when it went live with its consumer product in March.
In a notice to subscribers, obtained by Multichannel, Skitter said that it has “made progress toward a new agreement but it is difficult to know how long this will take.”