One big problem: Sky Angel distributes its signals over the Internet instead of a conventional cable-TV system.

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Even PLDT, which already operates a cable-TV system and an Internet service provider, is planning to offer cable Net access, "maybe before the end of 1999, " says Samson.

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The majority held that by providing individual streams to consumers according to their specific commands, Aereo was less like a cable-TV system than a consumer streaming a TV show from a Slingbox in one room to a TV set in another.

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