This month U.S. Digital Television filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. USDTV used digital television spectrum to broadcast a dozen encrypted basic cable channels at a price designed to undercut basic cable package rates. Subscribers used a set-top box descrambler to watch.
The company got some startup funds from Fox and the Hearst-Argyle station chain, but it wasn’t enough to grow the business to anywhere near a sustainable subscriber base. So after a run in just four cities, reaching an average of about 4,000 subscribers per city, USDTV is looking for an angel, or at eventual liquidation.
This is the second attempted business model using DTV spectrum for non-DTV purposes to go bust. The first was a Clear Channel-sponsored effort to turn digital television stations into Internet service providers. Others, involving the delivery of movies, music and software on-demand, are still afloat. How about using the extra spectrum afforded to DTV to offer extra (free) channels of content, as was promised when the DTV spectrum giveaway went down a decade ago?
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