This tiny antenna wants to shake up the cable industry

See that thing next to the dime? That’s an antenna. What’s it for, you ask? Well, consider this Barry Diller’s new pet project. The IAC-backed Aereo is an attempt to update broadcast TV for the internet age. With a tiny antenna, part of a bank of other antennas, accessible over the interwebs. The $12-a-month service (only, for now, available in NYC), can stream live broadcast TV to your computer, phone, tablet, Apple TV or Roku and allows you to timeshift programming, DVR-style, using an individualized cloud-based interface. It solves a longstanding problem — watching live TV away from a giant screen is an ugly, super-regulated experience (or if you’re willing to go illegal, an ad-and-spyware-ridden one), and cable costs an arm and a leg and gives you a lot of channels you don’t want. Aereo gets around this problem thanks to the way it handles itself, essentially working around certain legal decisions, which make it so they don’t have to pay the licensing fees cable companies do. (It’s only broadcast TV for now, though it’s feasible they could do cable with this model, too.) Would you pay $12 a month for this? (Edit for clarity)