“Tell your lawmakers how disappointed you are that the nation’s highest court issued a decision that could deny you the right to use the antenna of your choice to access live over-the-air broadcast television. Tell them your stories of why having access to a cloud-based antenna is important to you and your families.”

Congress could rewrite the law to save Aereo, but the video start-up would face a steep climb on Capitol Hill, where many lawmakers are skeptical of the service. TV broadcasters, a lobbying powerhouse, would fight tooth and nail to ensure that the service stays dead.

Aereo used clusters of tiny antennas to deliver local TV channels to its subscribers over the Internet. Everyone has the right to access over-the-air TV channels using an antenna, and Aereo claimed its subscribers were just renting access to an antenna.