BarryDriller.com Carriage Angers Broadcast Networks

Barry-Driller-BAnother over-the-top wannabe digital video TV site has drawn the ire of the major broadcasters.

This week, NBC, ABC and CBS have joined Fox in a copyright infringement claim against the entrepreneur behind FilmOn, who started up an Aereo-like site called BarryDriller.com. Fox filed its claim on Friday.

The name BarryDriller is a play on media executive Barry Diller, a major investor in the TV service, Aereo. The networks have not specified what specific damages they want against BarryDriller.com.

Alki David is the man who started up FilmOn.com a couple of years ago. FilmOn is an Internet-based TV site; its aim was to rebroadcast over-the-air TV station signals. Like Aereo, BarryDriller.com says it uses individual digital antennas to send signals to individual customers.

Aereo has said its Net-based operation is similar to TV customers using their own analog over-the-air antennas in their homes. Aereo recently won a court decision in July against the broadcasters' efforts to force an injunction order on the company.

A report in Deadline.com says BarryDriller.com's parent company, Aereokiller LLC, has suspended carriage of KNBC in Los Angeles. The company's efforts are intended to retransmit broadcast signals initially from Los Angeles and New York-area markets.

Recently, David agreed to pay the networks $1.6 million and stop operations on the streaming site FilmOn.

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