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Any minute now Aereo could change the future of television as the United States awaits a Supreme Court ruling. 

Aereo, hardly known to many because of it's current limited availability to only 11 cities including Boston and New York, has lit a wildfire of controversial discussions amongst media, broadcasting, and technology industries. Aereo's business model has been argued to potentially disrupt the echo system of television. 

The two-year-old start up uses tiny antennas (about the size of a quarter) to capture broadcast airwaves and stream those signals to users who pay $8 a month. In other words, an Aereo subscriber can pay $8 to watch the network television shows they want, when they want. With a combination of Aereo, Netflix and Hulu people could disregard cable companies all together.

This week, as the Supreme court evaluates Aereo's operations, the conversations between broadcasters and start-ups are getting heated. American broadcasting companies like ABC and CBS say that the start up is inherently violating copyright laws and that Aereo is straight up stealing their programming by taking free television signals from the airwaves and sending them over the internet without paying any transmission or cable fees. Not to mention, these broadcasting fees estimated at 3.3 million last year, nothing to sniff at. 

But Aereo says that all it is doing is taking what is free from an antenna and distributing it, just like the antennas you buy off the shelves. Essentially their argument comes down to being able to answer the following quetion:If it's legal to set up an atenna on your living room tv, than why wouldn't it be legal to set one up at a data base center and have it streamed?

"It does not trigger the so-called public performance clause in U.S. copyright law and should not have to pay royalties, because it gives subscribers access only to TV stations that are already available over the air for free," said Aereo's Lawyer, David Frederick, "And unlike cable and satellite TV services, which pays royalties to some networks, Aereo does not give thousands of people access to the same TV show at the same time."

On Tuesday, the justices in their ruling expressed not wanting to rule hastily against Areo because it could impact the cloud computing industries.

Read: Areo Argues That Ruling Against It Could Hurt Cloud Storage Business

Aereo v.s. ABC highlights just how much justices struggle to say on top of technological changes. Innovation in media is happening at a lightening speed in comparison to decade old copywrite laws, written before internet transmission was possible. The courts tread carefully while struggling to define what Aereo is exactly; an equipment manufacturer renting out equipment to subscribers or a service that transmits copyright-protected content. 

Read: Supreme Court Expresses Skeptisism On Aereo

Read: Justice Express Concern Over A Sweeping Aereo Ruling

There are several theories on how the outcome of the case will affect television media including sports games moving to cable only, companies facing legal risks and the blocking of new innovations.

Read at Huffington Post:  The Supreme Court Is About To Decide The Future Of Television

Reach Executive Reporter Michelle Bergmann here.