Aereo Takes Its Case To Washington

The online streaming video provider Aereo is trying to shake up the television world, but its cause could get dealt a big blow if the Supreme Court rules that its practices violate copyright law.

The dispute, which pits Aereo against major broadcasters and was heard by the justices on Monday, centers on the fact that Aereo receives over-the-air broadcast signals and redistributes them online to subscribers who pay a low monthly fee. Aereo doesn’t pay the broadcasters, arguing that it’s simply retransmitting content that’s already free, but the broadcasters see it as copyright infringement.

But Aereo isn’t making its case only in the courts. It has also taken to Washington in recent years, with the company and its CEO spending significantly on both lobbying and campaign contributions to get Congress to help out its cause.

Aereo only entered the lobbying game in 2012, but the company hasn’t been shy about throwing its money around. In its first year lobbying, the company spent $150,000 and nearly tripled that, to $440,000, last year. That rate stayed steady in the first quarter of 2014, with Aereo spending $110,000. The online video provider says on its lobbying disclosure reports that it’s weighing in on issues “pertaining to antennas and broadcast television.”

While the company doesn’t yet have a PAC, its founder and CEO, Chaitanya Kanojia, has been contributed to a range of Democratic candidates over the last few campaign cycles. He  gave $7,100 in the 2012 cycle, with his largest gifts going to President Obama ($2,500) and Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Ed Markey ($2,400). In the 2014 race, Kanojia already has given out $8,600 — topping his previous total — including $2,000 to Markey , $2,600 to Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and $1,500 to Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.).

Kanoija has also donated to Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), the chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, giving him $1,000 in the 2012 cycle and throwing in another $1,000 for Rockefeller’s leadership PAC, Mountaineer PAC, in the current cycle, even though Rockefeller announced in January that he won’t run for re-election.

Rockefeller has championed Aero’s cause through a bill he introduced in 2013 called the Consumer Choice in Online Video Act. The bill would force cable companies to offer services on an “a la carte,” channel-by-channel basis, meaning consumers wouldn’t have to pay for channels they didn’t want. But for Aereo, the bill is important because it says that services like Aereo, if ruled legal under copyright law, wouldn’t have to pay fees for retransmission of broadcasts.

Still, even if Aereo escapes the Supreme Court unscathed, Rockefeller’s bill faces a tough slog. Cable groups, who tend to be against Aereo, have largely dominated the lobbying on bills like Rockefeller’s that would benefit the company. Of the 20 organizations that lobbied on measure, 13 are cable and content providers or industry representatives, including giants like Verizon, Time Warner and 21st Century Fox.

The most notable is the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, which listed the bill on its lobbying disclosure reports six times, more than any other organization. The group spent nearly $20 million on lobbying in 2013, a huge sum of cash that could present a difficult legislative obstacle for Aereo to overcome in Congress, even if the company’s practices are found legal by the Supreme Court.

Image: Aereo CEO Chetanya Katojia at the Fortune Brainstorm Tech Conference in 2013 (Flickr/Stuart Isett, Fortune Brainstorm Tech)

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