Confirming rumors, Boxee Box today announced in a blog post that it would be selling a USB dongle for its OTT set-top box that would allow users to watch live TV. The $49 dongle will be available in January and be sold in the United States and Canada. The company is accepting pre-orders now.
The company, which earlier this year scored $16.5 million in a Series C funding round, is targeting viewers ready to cut the cord to pay-TV.
"If you are like us then the way you watch TV has changed," wrote CEO Aver Ronan on the company's blog. "The stuff on Netflix, YouTube, Hulu, Vudu, [and] Vimeo keeps getting better, and you can watch it everywhere. You end up watching less traditional TV, but continually pay more for it, which doesn't make much sense.
And, Ronan said, despite contentions from pay-TV operators that cord cutting "is not real, ... we are meeting more and more ‘cord never getters' and ‘cord cutters' every day. They are more than just people tightening their belts in tough economic times, these are people who have left cable TV behind because it does not fit their lifestyle."
Potential cord cutters haven't been willing to pull the plug because, Ronan said, local sports, news and live TV shows haven't easily been available.
"But these things are all available on broadcast TV channels like ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC for free, over the air in HD" he wrote. "With Boxee Live TV you can watch them all on your Boxee Box."
For more:
- see this post
- see this GigaOm report
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