Startup Vidgo set to take on Sling, Vue in live linear streaming race

LAS VEGAS -- An angel-funded startup led by an executive who helped launch DirecTV (NYSE: T) said it's about to roll out a killer app for live linear streaming that will combine national and local channels.

Led by former DirecTV exec Robert Kostensky and a mystery co-founder, Vidgo said at CES that it is the closing stages of assembling a comprehensive set of program deals and will launch in 15 cities, including New York, Los Angeles and Vidgo's home base of Atlanta, sometime in the next 35-45 days.

"We're just dotting the I's and crossing the Ts," Kostensky said in a meeting Tuesday with FierceCable at the CES trade show. 

Kostensky wouldn't divulge who his co-founder is, how many channels Vidgo will have at launch, what those channels specifically will be, or how much the service will cost. This information, he said, will be disclosed when the company's content deals are completed and the service launches.

At launch, he added, the service will be viewable on all major OTT platforms, ranging from Android and iOS smart phones and tablets to Roku, Chromecast and Amazon Fire TV streaming devices. 

So how is a startup able to break the complicated code of securing agreements with local stations for OTT and not Apple? 

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. 

He 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. 

For more:
- read this Vidgo press release

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