АҚШ-тағы USDTV цифрлық теледидар қызметінің тарихы

Over the air pay television service in the United States
USDTV leased subchannel space from local TV stations for its subscription TV service. USDTV ended services in 2007.

U. S. Digital Television was formed in June 2003 and launched its service as a test in Salt Lake City near the end of 2003. On March 16, 2004, 1000 subscribers signed up with no advertising. US Digital also launched into the Albuquerque, New Mexico, market. At that time, the company expected to enter the Las Vegas market next and an additional 30 markets by the end of the year. In the fourth quarter 2004, fifth generation chips and ATSC tuners would be supplied by LG for USDTV tuners and would be available. In September 2005, Hearst Argyle Television, McGraw Hill Companies, News Corp.'s Fox Television Stations, LIN TV, and Morgan Murphy Stations broadcasters invested $26 million in the company. Steven Lindsley indicated that the investing broadcasting companies did not think that the service would be able to compete against the cable companies, thus withdrawing support from USDTV. NexGen had a major loss in another investment in fourth quarter 2006 forcing them to curtail their ongoing investment in USDTV. When no new bridge funding could be found, US Digital ended services in March 2007.

USDTV served customers in and near Salt Lake City, Utah, Albuquerque, New Mexico, Las Vegas, Nevada, and Dallas, Texas. The company used extra bandwidth on digital television stations to send channels to subscribers who had a special set top box digital tuner provided by the company and an attic or roof mounted antenna which were available nationwide via Walmart and in the West by RC Willey furniture and electronics stores. The USDIGITAL brand boxes sold where the service was not available operated like an ordinary digital television tuner. Two technology companies, eWest and ServicePower, partnered to help clients install the equipment while self installers would get two months free. The cost for the basic tier service was $19.95 per month. USDTV also offered Starz! for an additional monthly fee. The basic tier started out with 11 cable channels: ESPN, ESPN2, Disney Channel, Toon Disney, Discovery Channel, TLC, Lifetime, Lifetime Movie Network, Home & Gardening Television, Fox News, and the Food Network. By July 2003, the service had 30 channels.