Company Offers Cable TV Over Airwaves
March 18, 2004 -- At a Tuesday morning press event on the 18th floor of New York's Waldorf Towers, Salt Lake City-based U.S. Digital Television (USDTV) unveiled a new subscription service that allows American households to receive popular cable channels via local television antennas.
"Today we announce a new era in broadcast television," said Steven Lindsley, the company chairman and chief executive officer. "We announce that U.S. Digital Television has successfully built and deployed an all-digital TV service that is an alternative to cable and satellite, that utilizes local broadcasters' digital capacity to deliver cable's most popular channels."
The service has been available in Salt Lake City for the past three months. According to Lindsley, roughly 1,000 Salt Lake City homes have already signed up. "And that's with no marketing or promotion whatsoever," he said.
On Tuesday, USDTV rolled out the service in Albuquerque, N.M. And beginning with Las Vegas, the company plans reach another 30 major American markets by the end of the year. "Our plan calls for 5,000,000 subscribers in the next four years," Lindsley said.
Easy and Cheaper Alternative
For a fee of $19.95 per month, the service offers 11 cable channels — ESPN, ESPN2, Disney Channel, Toon Disney, Discovery Channel, The Learning Channel, Lifetime, Lifetime Movie Network, Home & Gardening Television, Fox News, and the Food Network — as well as local and nationally affiliated broadcast channels.
In some markets this will include HDTV channels, which provide high-resolution programming in a wide-screen format. For an additional fee subscribers will also have access to the premium movie channel Starz!
To use the service, subscribers must have a proprietary USDTV set-top box and a roof- or attic-mounted antenna. According to Lindsley, nationwide Wal-Mart stores will offer set-tops for $100 and antennas for $30. In the West, equipment is also available at RC Willey furniture and electronics stores.
Two national support companies, eWest and ServicePower, have partnered with USDTV to help install this equipment. But if subscribers handle installation themselves, they'll receive two free months of service. The service can be activated with a phone call.
Taking Advantage of the Digital Switch
In areas where USDTV hasn't been deployed, Wal-Mart will sell the set-top boxes under the USDIGITAL brand, and buyers can use them as ordinary HDTV tuners. If USDTV reaches the previously uncovered area and the set-top box owners choose to subscribe, they can do so without upgrading their box.
USDTV provides its service though partnerships with local television broadcasters, many of whom have installed new digital transmission facilities at the behest of the FCC. Congress has ordered all broadcasters to switch from analog to digital television by Dec. 31, 2006, and according to Lindsley, local stations have spent over $2.5 billion upgrading their equipment.
"USDTV is partnering with broadcasters to utilize its new channel capacity to offer consumers a low-cost alternative to cable and satellite," said Lindsley. According to the FCC, the average cable television bill has now reached $40 — up from roughly $25 in 1995.