Didja brings free TV streaming app LocalBTV to Philadelphia

Didja is today launching LocalBTV – its free local broadcast television streaming app – in the Philadelphia designated market area.

The addition of Philadelphia expands the LocalBTV trial. The app is currently available in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Phoenix. Didja said it plans to soon launch in New York City and San Diego.

LocalBTV offers up to 42 free channels in its current trial markets. It’s free for users and doesn’t require an antenna. The service also provides free access to a cloud DVR. Didja CEO Jim Long said his company is working on distribution deals with the five major broadcasters (ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC and Univision) and after it has all or most of those in place, it will launch a low-cost subscription streaming service.

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Long said that Didja is in the last phase of testing an infrastructure that will allow it to reduce streaming costs. The company works closely with Amazon Web Services and has its hardware inside of and antennas on top the data centers. He said Didja’s hybrid cloud infrastructure allows LocalBTV to keep its delay down to about four to six seconds behind live broadcast (plus another 20 to 30 seconds to account for transcoding).

Long also said Didja’s infrastructure means operating LocalBTV is about 30% less expensive per simultaneous stream.

On top of testing the infrastructure, Didja is also testing targeted dynamic ad insertion on the LocalBTV platform. Long said the technology will help Didja make money by using viewer information to offer the stations the chance to target ads for certain regions or devices. He said that Didja can insert the ads for local broadcasters or it can just pass through the over-the-air ads already in place.

Long also said that Didja’s LocalBTV platform can work for local channels being served to any app, which means the company can pursue service provider agreements with other free streaming apps like Pluto TV.