Wireless Pay TV Service USDTV Shuts Down Operations

USDTV, the wireless pay television service that attempted to use broadcast spectrum as a low-cost alternative to cable and satellite television, has closed its doors. USDTV filed for bankruptcy in July of 2006 and Denver-based NexGen Telecom acquired its assets. USDigital, the company behind the service, announced l

Author:: TVTechnology
Publish date:: Mar 15, 2007
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USDTV, the wireless pay television service that attempted to use broadcast spectrum as a low-cost alternative to cable and satellite television, has closed its doors.

USDTV filed for bankruptcy in July of 2006 and Denver-based NexGen Telecom acquired its assets. USDigital, the company behind the service, announced last week that the service had failed and would shut down due to a withdrawal of funding from NexGen.

Ten USDTV employees will lose their jobs as a result and 4,000 subscribers in Salt Lake City, Dallas/Fort Worth, Albuquerque and Las Vegas will be affected. Arrangements have been made with a third-party company to convert the USDTV set-top boxes so customers may continue receiving over-the-air digital and HD channels.

USDTV shuts down promo image

The cable competitor was forced to shut down after its major investor withdrew funds.

USDTV is shutting down.

U.S. Digital Television, Inc. (USDTV) has unveiled what it claims is the first ever "over-the-air" digital subscription cable channel service in the United States.

The Deseret Morning News reports that a court-appointed trustee was able to obtain a court order allowing USDTV's off-air subscription DTV service to continue during the reorganization. It also said a few employees were back at the phones at the USDTV customer call center. According to the article, "USDTV customer

Telecommunications investment company NexGen Telecom has acquired the assets of the bankrupt U.S. Digital Television. NexGen has also added The MountainWest Sports network to the USDTV service. USDTV was at one point an industry leader in digital and high-definition pay TV, but had suffered recent financial problems

USDTV has introduced its digital TV service in Dallas, following the pilots in Salt Lake City, Albuquerque and Las Vegas last year. Recently USDTV inked a $25.75 million funding agreement with investment partners Fox TV Stations, Hearst-Argyle Television, McGraw-Hill Broadcasting, LIN TV, Morgan Murphy Stations a

USDTV is now negotiating with the bankruptcy courts to permit the continuation of the service so the assets can be sold.

Not long after demonstrating transmission of MPEG-4 compressed video in an ATSC broadcast TV stream at NAB2006, USDTV--the first over-the-air digital subscription TV service in the United States--declared bankruptcy. Last week, NexGen Telecom LLC announced it acquired the assets of U.S. Digital Television LLC (USDTV) f