After pitching itself at CES in early January as the killer virtual pay-TV app that would combine live linear streaming of national cable and local broadcast channels for less than $50 a month, angel-funded start-up Vidgo has entered a period of prolonged radio silence.
The mystery-shrouded company, led by former DirecTV (NYSE: T) sales and distribution executive Robert Kostensky and an undisclosed co-founder, told FierceCable at the Consumer Electronics Show on Jan. 5 that it would announce its launch into 15 cities, including New York, Los Angeles and the company's home base of Atlanta, within 30 to 45 days.
"We're just dotting the I's and crossing the T's," Kostenky said at the time.
Asked about the status of the launch this morning, Vidgo press rep Kimberly Jefferson said an announcement updating the company's progress would be out "in the next couple of weeks." In her email exchange with FierceCable, Jefferson has yet to respond to the question as to whether the delay is caused by content licensing hangups.
If that is the case, Vidgo is hardly the only video distributor that has been challenged the here-to-date unassailable wall of securing comprehensive local broadcasting rights.
The most well known example is, of course, Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL). According to numerous Wall Street Journal reports, the technology giant earnestly spent 2015 plugging away with the major programming conglomerates and their station-group constituents, ultimately deciding to back away from its ambitious video service offering.
For his part, Kostensky was able to secure ample coverage at CES of Vidgo, staking the claim that his start-up would accomplish what Apple could not.
Kostensky said his co-founder has been developing backend infrastructure for video streaming for the last seven years. The fact that Vidgo is offering a fully baked, secure technology and has been transparent about it, has gained the trust of media conglomerates, he said.
"The first thing we did was build the road and make it 100 percent compliant," Kostensky added.
Kostensky was coy regarding the details, but did note a few details on pricing structure: The service will have three programming tiers, similar to Sony's Playstation Vue. The service will be priced somewhere between the $20-a-month base price of Dish Network's (NASDAQ: DISH) Sling TV and the $50-a-month base option of Vue.
Unlike Sling, he added, multiple members in a household will be able to stream video simultaneously.
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