• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, June 14, 2013

Would Chase Carey take it back if he could?

Certainly, as one of the smartest media executives around with impressive tenures at DirecTV and News Corp., he doesn’t need any advice from the media. But, in retrospect, he might have been better off cutting his April comments about Aereo short.

The suggestion he made – that Fox could move to pay-TV distribution -- has brought potentially troubling interest on Capitol Hill and may have only helped the enemy Carey and colleagues would like to quash.

A case could be made that the media has overblown what he said. He went out of his way to qualify it and probably didn’t anticipate the snowball effect.  

Aereo streams broadcast content live online and major media companies, including News Corp., have sued it for copyright infringement. They believe it could deprive them of carriage fees and ad dollars and want it shuttered.

According to Variety, here’s what Carey said: “Aereo is stealing our signal. We believe in our legal rights, we’re going to pursue those legal rights fully and completely, and we believe we’ll prevail.”

Rather innocuous. If Carey had followed that with “other than that, I can’t comment on pending litigation” and then moved along, the reverberations would be vastly different.  

He continued, however.

“But we want to be clear,” he said at an NAB event. “If we can’t have our rights properly protected through legal and political avenues, we will pursue business solutions. One such business solution would be to take the network and turn it into a subscription service.”

That’s turned out to be a bombshell.

His follow-up about a pay-TV switch not being a “path we’d love to pursue, but we’re not going to sit idly by and let people steal our content” hasn’t made much difference.

Many Americans continue to view broadcast television as sacred ground. Sort of a public trust, even though it's huge business.

There’s still a perception that the networks and their local stations are free. While they are still available gratis via antennas, most people end up paying for them via cable or other subscriptions. 

Carey doesn't shy away from controversy. Perhaps he thought Aereo poses enough of a threat he needed to make his comments with a threat of his own.

But did he realize any suggestion that networks would move exclusively to pay TV – as unlikely as it is – would cause the substantial dustup it has?

In fairness, the comments may have had less of an impact had CBS CEO Leslie Moonves not come out with vigorous support, suggesting CBS might look for alternate solutions, too, if need be.

More than any others, there may be two institutions a business doesn’t want on its back: the IRS and Congress. And, some in Congress aren’t thrilled with this move-to-cable prospect advanced by Carey, Moonves and Univision investor Haim Saban.

First, Arizona Sen. John McCain introduced a bill that “responds to statements by broadcast executives that they may ‘downgrade’ the content on their over-the-air signals, or pull them altogether.” (Networks could keep local stations going, but move the top-tier content -- Fox as we know it, for example -- to cable.) The McCain bill would strip a broadcaster of spectrum allocation, which would then be auctioned off by the FCC.

Carey’s comments and Moonves’ endorsement have recently dragged ABC and NBC into the fray.

In a hearing this week, Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-California) asked Disney global distribution president Ben Pyne if moving ABC to pay-TV would be in compliance with “public interest terms” of FCC licenses.

Pyne didn’t want to touch it and took the tack Carey might smartly have – so much so Eshoo indicated she was impressed by Pyne's effective dodge.

“I know there are other network executives who have said certain things,” Pyne said. “Our company’s position is that … we are in pending litigation with Aereo. We will always do everything we can to protect our content and the copyright and the illegal appropriation of our content. And, our focus is on the prevailing litigation.”

Comcast, which owns NBC, also looks to be pursuing a similarly guarded approach. Recently, CFO Michael Angelakis told investors: “I don’t want to talk about how business models may change. I leave that to folks who want to be more vocal about it.”

Will McCain’s bill, which has a la carte and other provisions, go through? Will Eshoo do more than put a top media executive on the spot? Unlikely.

But broadcasters, who have already piqued Congress with blackouts during retransmission consent disputes, can’t be thrilled with the prospect of having to answer more move-to-cable questions on Capitol Hill. Hearings are likely to continue regarding a bill that impacts the operations of DirecTV and Dish Network, but has an echo effect throughout the industry.

Recently, Moonves has tried to dampen the controversy. He reiterated in a Bloomberg interview this week that “too much has been written” about Aereo and “it’s not something that keeps us awake at night.”

On the question of media over-saturation, it’s hard to argue with Moonves, though much of the blame lies on him for fueling it.

Besides Congressional ire, the comments by Carey and Moonves may have sparked some consumer interest in Aereo. Even though subscribership is likely low, the executives may have gotten the attention of some tech-savvy, anti-establishment types – if not others eager to drastically cut cable bills by going with an Aereo/Netflix combination. Overall, they have given Aereo an enviable dose of free publicity.

Truth is, with local stations moving to offer their own live streaming services, Aereo could struggle. Especially if Barry Diller stops investing in it. 

But it would be interesting to ask Chase Carey if he regrets his suggestion that "American Idol" won't be available in the living rooms of all Americans. The guess is he wishes he’d have been less pointed. But more than anything, he may just be amused with how things have mushroomed.