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| [April 24, 2006] |
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USDTV Unveils Second-Generation Set-Top Box
LAS VEGAS --(Business Wire)-- April 24, 2006 -- New Set-Top Box Becomes First Broadcast Media Center; Enables Value-Oriented Customers More Low-Cost Content Choices; Improves Long-Term Competitive Advantage
U.S. Digital Television, LLC (USDTV), the leading low-cost, all-digital wireless cable alternative, today unveiled details of the company's second-generation low-cost digital terrestrial set-top box. USDTV's new set-top box integrates state-of-the-art digital tuning, compression and storage technologies, enabling the company to establish a low-cost broadcast-driven media center in the home. The new set-top box will serve as a media hub for new low-cost themed content packages, video-on-demand (VOD), personal video recording (PVR), home networking, and broadband connectivity. This multifaceted set-top box can also function as a portability base for mobile content devices.
"Our second-generation set-top box is an essential technical milestone in offering consumers more choice, developing new revenue streams for our broadcast partners, and sustaining our long-term competitive advantage," said Steve Lindsley, Chief Executive Officer of USDTV. "Developing a broadcast-based media platform will allow us to meet the demands of value-oriented customers today and into the future."
"No other company has more consumer and broadcaster experience than USDTV in delivering on both the technical and specialized channel business model potential of digital broadcasting," said Richard Doherty, Research Director of The Envisioneering Group. "USDTV is in an excellent position to provide millions of homes with the simplest, consumer-understandable, legitimate pay TV alternative well in advance of the analog shut-down."
USDTV will be releasing its second-generation set-top box in two phases, the first of which will begin shipping to customers in the fall of 2006. It will feature a number of new digital technologies including, the new system-on-a-chip media processor from Sigma Design, and the latest high performance 8VSB DTV demodulator from ATI. The combination of these advanced digital technologies will enable USDTV to target a larger geographic base and offer a broader set of programming options.
In early 2007 the Company will release an enhanced version of the set-top box incorporating a 250-gigabyte hard drive, which will support a variety of storage based and in-home networking services. Customers will have the choice of subscribing to individual content packages and service features, giving USDTV and its broadcast partners new revenues and long-term competitive strength.
"Our next-generation set-top box reaffirms our commitment to technology and our core belief that it will continue working in our favor," said Richard Johnson, Chief Operating Officer for USDTV. "This set-top box fulfills our promise of better reception, additional low-cost content and advanced storage capacity for PVR and VOD services."
About USDTV
U.S. Digital Television was formed in 2003 as the first "over-the-air" terrestrial digital subscription TV service in the United States and offers consumers a low-cost alternative to cable. The service is broadcast to customers for $19.95 a month, using the digital signals of local TV station partners. Customers receive USDTV with a standard VHF/UHF antenna and a propriety digital TV converter box. The USDTV service includes all the local and national broadcast channels from networks like ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC, along with many leading cable networks such as, Fox News Channel, ESPN, ESPN2, Discovery, TLC, The Disney Channel, Toon Disney, Lifetime, Lifetime Movie Network, HGTV, The Food Channel and Starz. USDTV averages 30 all-digital channels per market and enables viewers to receive high-definition pictures and surround sound, when available from their local broadcast stations. The USDTV set-top-box produces a DVD quality picture on any TV and an HD quality picture and digital surround sound on an HD-Ready TV with home theater equipment. U.S. Digital Television, LLC was formed in 2005 with investments from Fox Television Stations, Inc., Hearst-Argyle Television, Inc., LIN TV Corp., McGraw Hill Broadcasting, Morgan Murphy Stations, and Telcom DTV, LLC. The company currently serves subscribers in Dallas/Fort Worth, Salt Lake City, Albuquerque, and Las Vegas. USDTV is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah. www.usdtv.com
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