• by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, November 7, 2014

It looks like online video distributor Aereo has decided it can no longer afford to continue burning $1 million a month.

This week the company told employees that it would shutter the Boston office and lay off 43 people. Aereo will continue to operate a small New York office, but with a skeletal crew.

In many ways, the most surprising thing about the move is that Aereo waited this long. At this point, more than three months have passed since the Supreme Court sided with TV broadcasters by ruling that Aereo's company's streaming video service -- which allowed subscribers to watch over-the-air television on smartphones, tablets and other devices -- infringed copyright. The Supreme Court didn't offer any opinion about whether Aereo's DVR-like service, which allowed people to “record” shows for later viewing, also posed problems.

Aereo suspended operations several days after that opinion came out, but continued to incur costs of more than $1 million a month, CEO Chet Kanoja said in court papers filed this summer.

The company has spent much of the last three months arguing that it's now a “cable system” and is entitled to a compulsory license. The U.S. Copyright Office said it disagrees, but hasn't issued a final decision.

Last month, U.S. District Court Judge Alison Nathan in New York also said Aereo wasn't entitled to a cable license. Nathan granted the broadcasters request for a preliminary injunction banning Aereo from streaming programs while they're still being broadcast.

That ruling leaves Aereo free to restart its DVR-like service, but isn't necessarily Nathan's final word on the subject. She said that she expects to rule soon on whether to issue a permanent injunction -- which could apply to Aereo's real-time streams as well as its DVR system.

However Nathan decides, the Federal Communications Commission is considering a rule change that could allow Aereo to argue that it's entitled to a cable license. But there's no telling how long Aereo might have to wait for the FCC to move. Unfortunately for Aereo -- and for any subscribers who relied on the service -- even if the FCC changes the rules, there's no guarantee that the company will be able to pick up where it left off .