Schaech, Dorsey cast in Showtime's 'Donovan'

Showtime has cast Johnathon Schaech, Kerris Dorsey and Ambyr Childers in drama pilot "Ray Donovan," starring Liev Schreiber. Schaech ("That Factor You Have To DoInch) will a celebrity getting unknown link to Schreiber's Donovan, a specialist La trouble-shooter. Dorsey, who carried out the daughter of Kaira Pitt's Billy Beane in "Moneyball," may have Donovan's daughter. Childers ("The KidsInch), may have a young celebrity under Donovan's protection. Also formerly cast are Jon Voight, Elliott Gould, Dash Mihok, Paula Malcomson, Peter Jacobson, Pooch Hall and Kate Moennig. Ann Biderman ("Southland") created "Ray Donovan" which is professional creating with Mark Gordon and Bryan Zuriff. Production will begin in La later this month. Contact Jon Weisman at jon.weisman@variety.com

Tv stations sue Aereo startup service

The broadcast systems and a number of stations and galleries have sued against Aereo, something trying to provide clients with Internet streams of major broadcast stations within the NY area. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, is trying to halt Aereo, set to visit public on March 14, in addition to unspecified damages. The station litigants -- including WNET, Tribune's WPIX, the Fox Television Stations and Univision O&O groups -- state that the business's plans infringe on their own to public performance, which the streams from the signals would represent unfair competition. Another suit seemed to be filed by ABC, Disney, CBS, NBCUniversal and WNJU, also seeking an injunction and damages. Federal courts have shut lower the net streaming of TV station signals by the likes of FilmOn and ivi, but Aereo has recommended that could overcome the legal hurdle by establishing something by which signals are taken with a small antenna for everybody customer, as opposed to the traditional one-to-many transmission The broadcasts are transformed into an electronic format and sent on the internet and also to mobile products. Aereo is charging $12 monthly, and traders include Craig Diller's IAC. The issue for tv stations is really streaming services undercut the lucrative retransmission costs they receive from cable operators. "It really is not important whether Aereo uses one large antenna to get ...broadcasts and retramsmit these to customers, or 'tons' of 'tiny' antennas, as Aereo claims it will,Inch the WNET-Fox suit mentioned. "No quantity of technological gimmickry by Aereo -- or claims that it's simply supplying some sophisticated 'rabbit ears' -- changes the essential principle of copyright law that individuals who would like to retransmit plaintiffs' broadcasts may achieve this just with plaintiffs' authority." Within the other suit, the systems stated that Aereo's "miniature antenna plan is definitely an artifice," and noted it "electronically transcodes, converts and compresses the programs to allow them to be retransmitted online to the customers." A spokesperson for Aereo stated the organization didn't have comment. Contact Ted Manley at ted.manley@variety.com