Multicasting Turns Into OTA Cable

[Kevin Arnold]

Here's an interesting article from Utah where U.S. Digital Television is leasing digital spectrum from established channels, selling a decoder, and using multicasting to set up a mini cable system without the cable.  Read the article:

US Digital Story

Could this work here? We certainly have enough availible channels that could be leased.  Pax 55, WJJA's shopping channel, WVCY's digital channel are all possibles.  With the provision of $99 decoders that can be hooked up to HDTV or to SD tv, this market could have some competition to cable and satellite. Nobody offers a mini package of sports and a few cable channels. Even more interesting is that this would make the broadcasters digital channels profitable a lot sooner. Even if they just sold the decoders (STB) only, that could spur HD on.