Though Moody’s thinks an Aereo victory in the...

Though Moody’s thinks an Aereo victory in the Supreme Court is unlikely, a win for the streaming TV service could limit broadcasters’ negotiating leverage in retransmission consent deals, the service said in an email to investors. “If Aereo wins the case, cable and satellite providers could also cease paying retransmission fees to carry local programming by setting up their own form of antennae delivery of broadcasting signals,” Moody’s said. Relationships between broadcasters and multichannel video programming distributors would change “unless Congress acted to update copyright laws,” said Moody’s Senior Vice President Neil Begley in the email. Congress would have the incentive to do so if an Aereo win caused broadcasters to convert to an alternative to over-the-air signals to protect their content, Moody’s said.