Evoca TV, which is using the ATSC 3.0 transmission standard to broadcast its all-IP OTT pay TV service in smaller markets using low-power TVs, is looking to power up through the FCC's upcoming auction of new TV station construction permits (CPs).*

Evoca's stated goal is to be "a reliable, high quality alternative to traditional cable, satellite, and streaming services," particularly in smaller, rural markets, to deliver its combination of ATSC 3.0 broadcast and streaming video content.

Just last week Evoca said it was poised to launch in its fourth market, Twin Falls, Idaho.

The FCC in November sought comment on how it should auction CPs for 27 permits to build new, full-power TV stations. Markets are primarily West of the Mississippi, though there is a CP available in Syracuse, N.Y., as well.

Under current FCC rules, those new stations, if they chose to launch in ATSC, the new transmission standard that allows for datacasting and interactivity as well as higher-resolution pictures and sound, they must also simulcast in the ATSC 1.0 standard since viewers would need a new set or adapter to view ATSC 3.0 signals.

Also: Evoca's LPTV Service to Debut in Phoenix

But in comments to the FCC, Evoca parent Edge Networks said that one of the reasons it was able to provide competition to cable, with an OTT service targeted to underserved smaller markets with cost-efficient high-speed internet and affordable TV service, was that it uses LPTVs exclusively to avoid the added expense of the ATSC 1.0 simulcast requirement for its broadcast video programming.

It said the FCC should exempt the new CPs from the simulcast requirement or at least signal there is a "clear path" to a waiver.

Essentially, Edge Networks was telling the FCC to put its exemption where its mouth was, so to speak. "The Commission for years has held to the mantra that America needs to promote investment in more widespread and robust rural broadband," the company said, which it argues is what Evoca is providing.

"Given the opportunity to bring the same innovation to FPTV, Evoca could provide the numerous benefits it offers to more households, in even more rural areas, more rapidly, and at much lower cost than traditional MVPDs," it argued.

But it is not just talking about traditional video programming. "ATSC 3.0 multicast efficiencies can offload video traffic that strains rural IP networks, reducing per household data traffic by as much as 80%. As more and more people 'cut the cord,' the burdens of one-at-a-time streaming grow on many ISP platforms, especially in bandwidth-constrained rural areas."

Edge Networks argued that the ATSC 1.0 simulcast was meant to make sure that existing stations with established viewer bases did not leave those viewers behind in the move to the non-backwards compatible ATSC 3.0 transmission system currently underway. But there is no set of existing viewers to accommodate a newly constructed station, it pointed out.

"Evoca encourages the Commission to expressly exempt the new CPs from the simulcast rule in its final order in this docket. The new FPTV stations should be allowed to build and operate exclusively ATSC 3.0 at the outset," it told the commission. ■

* The CP auction is expected to launch in June 2022.

More than 1,000 viewers have signed up for Evoca, the new TV service being launched Sept. 1 in Boise, Idaho, by Edge Networks that employs ATSC 3.0 Next Generation TV broadcast technology.

Evoca Early Access subscribers pay just $20 a month through the end of the year. Evoca plans to charge $49 for its service, which includes a free receiver, more than 45 channels and a free HD antenna that allows users to receive ATSC 1.0 broadcast signals over the air -- and avoid paying hefty retransmission fees to local TV stations.

Also read: ATSC 3.0 Pay TV Service Evoca TV Adds BYUtv and Outdoor Sportsman Group

“We’ve got way more people signed than we’ve got space for in the early access program. So to be honest, we’re not going to do a ton of marketing early on,” said Todd Achilles, CEO of Evoca.

 Also read: Tech Company Using ATSC 3.0 to Challenge Cable, Satellite 

“Tired of spending too much on cable? Enjoy high quality, live TV without breaking the bank,” is the pitch on the Evoca website.

Evoca is making its own “Scout” boxes that allow it to bring in programming from several sources and lets subscribers view them seamlessly.

The Evoca user interface features live linear channels that come in via either the ATSC 1.0 antenna or a 3.0 antenna, a catalog of VOD programming that are delivered either via broadband or downloaded into memory built into the set top box and a selection of video apps.

Achilles is looking forward to other broadcasters upgrading to the Next Gen broadcast standard.

“3.0 is the world's best air interface. It's better than 5G. It's more efficient than 5G and it's incredibly robust in terms of the experience,” Achilles said. “We're operating on low-power TV stations in Boise and our signal is as robust, if not more, than a lot of the 1.0 full power folk.”

At the top of the channel guide here is the Weather Channel.

“So this is a classic cable network. We bring it in. We push it over the air,” Achilles said. “We put it in position number one because everybody sort of checks weather first and this is a 3.0 stream that's coming in over the air,” Achilles said.

Last week, Evoca announced the addition of two new channels, BYUtv and Outdoor Sportsman Group. Those fishing and outdoors channels are important to viewers in Boise, Achilles notes.

A week before launch, Evoca subscribers get access via the antenna to local broadcast network affiliates, plus their digital multicast channels such as Antenna TV and Court TV. They also get some cable networks, such as CBS Sports Network, A+E Networks-owned A&E, History and Lifetime, and the Hallmark Channels and channels like Cowboy Channel, World Fishing Network, MAV TV, Stadium and Law&Crime.

Missing from the list are most of the biggest channels from the biggest media companies, which sell their programming in expensive bundles and have resisted letting them be sold on an a la carte basis.

Evoca’s Achilles sees that changing. “It's definitely an industry in transition,” he said. “In our conversations with them, number one is there aren't a lot of growth opportunities, so they're really excited about this, and number two [00:16:57] is, you know, they're moving into a direct-to-consumer VOD application model and they're kind of moving away from ‘Take our 26 channels.’"

But he acknowledges that negotiating with media companies has slowed Evoca down, particularly during the pandemic.

Similarly, Evoca doesn’t yet offer apps for popular streamers like Netflix or Hulu.

“Like everything else, it’s a work in progress,” he said.

Evoca will focus on mid-size and small cities starting in the Mountain West region not served by the cable giants.

“They’re basically TV deserts now,” he said. They’re chronically under-servce and they’re very little competition. What service there is is usually expensive and poor. And there’s a ton of broadcast spectrum available in these markets.”

Eventually Evoca will sell advertising and is set up to do advanced and addressable advertising.

“Out of the gate we're not going to be super aggressive on the advertising side,” said Achilles, noting that Evoca doesn’t have a sales team yet. “We'll do the basics. But as we as we scale and we ramp up up then clearly that's a big part of the business.”

A Silicon Valley startup says it will launch a new platform that will “radically lower video bandwidth costs” next month. 

Edge Video says the first test results of its SWAN (Small-world Wide Area Networks) showed a 5x reduction in bandwidth costs, compared with costs of existing server-based architectures. The system enables a live video stream to be captured by the SWAN technology and rebroadcast to viewers where each of the viewers' devices leverage the unused upload capacity to restream fractional portions of the video stream to other viewers.

"This is the most radical product to emerge in Edge Computing" said Joe Ward, CEO of Edge Video. "Video is by far the highest cost application per user on the internet. Here we are enabling a 5x reduction in network egress costs, resulting in a much higher video definition for viewers."

Edge says it's targeting a 10x reduction in bandwidth costs when it announces the next phase of Edge Video SWAN testing in July 2020, “where all cloud computing users at AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud and Oracle Cloud will be able to soon leverage the Edge Video SWAN technology to substantially reduce server bandwidth (egress) costs and increase video viewing definition as a result.”

This story was originally published in Next TV sibling publication TV Technology. 

As the new era of NextGen TV beckons, there’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to utilize this expansive new technology to really help millions of Americans—and it’s not the millions who live in urban areas. While it’s the big cities of our country that get most of the attention, there are hundreds of smaller cities whose citizens live in a “television desert.”  

Many cities and towns in America have only a single local TV signal, importing network programming via long-distance cable and satellite feeds. Now that ATSC 3.0 has begun its march across America, there’s a real opportunity to hitch our future to a powerful stagecoach—particularly for viewers in mid-sized and small markets.

Also read: ATSC 3.0 Company Edge Networks Launching Virtual Pay TV Service for Rural Consumers  

The FCC’s “broadcast internet” ruling and proposed rulemaking, which the commission will consider at its June meeting, is one step in the right direction. But I think even more regulatory weed whacking is needed to help our small towns. The problem for the rest of America is too many regulatory burdens that hold back a radically new and dramatically competitive market opportunity.

First, kudos to the FCC for acknowledging that low-power TV broadcasters can be champions of this new technology. We heartily agree with the commission’s initial notice that ATSC 3.0 could be used “to provide non-traditional broadcast video services such as video-on-demand or subscription video services and new, innovative non-broadcast services.”  Yes, exactly!

In Boise, Idaho (Nielsen market 100—with 273,500 homes), Edge Networks is “on the air” now testing how a pair of low-power stations could provide 4K programming and dozens of other channels to future viewers. We’ll be launching a new service called “Evoca” (as in “evocative”) in Boise later this summer, with big plans to combine over-the-air with over-the-top video sources. Our all-IP, converged, streaming video platform is exactly what the ATSC 3.0 founders had in mind, I believe.

But the FCC could do even more to open up more options for viewers. Broadcast has always been and will always be the most efficient way to reach American homes. And the IP-based ATSC 3.0 system can do even more.

The FCC has asked the questions, so here’s what I recommend to jump-start the deployment of ATSC 3.0 across the fruited plain:

Let’s not leave the benefits of ATSC 3.0 to just the big cities. This fantastic new technology has great potential all across America. And it’s time that we realize what opportunities are ahead with IP-based broadcast television than can truly bring a better, less expensive option to America’s viewers all across the country.

Wireless innovator Todd Achilles is chief executive officer of Idaho-based Edge Networks, which is launching its Evoca TV service this summer in Boise, Idaho.

This story originally appeared on Next TV sibling publication TV Technology.

Edge Networks Inc., an ATSC 3.0-focused company headed by veteran wireless technologist Todd Achilles, plans to launch a virtual pay TV service targeted to secondary and tertiary markets without ample choice for cost-efficient high-speed internet.

The privately funded Edge Networks, which received permission last July from the FCC to establish two ATSC 3.0 stations in the Boise market, plans to launch the pay TV service this summer in Boise.

Evoca will offer more than 80 channels, including the major broadcast networks, as well as “major” news, sports and entertainment HD channels found in other major virtual pay TV bundles, Achilles told Multichannel News. The bundle will include some 4K programming. Access to major SVOD services will also be integrated.

The service will feature a proprietary settop box and over-the-air antenna, and will be priced at less than $50. Achilles, a former Hewlett Packard and T-Mobile executive, said many major details are still being hammered out. “But the service will have no hidden fees or surcharges, or this, that and the other,” he said.

“This is not a pure streaming service; we’re not clogging the internet with a bunch of redundant streams,” Achilles said, noting that Evoca will be based on ATSC 3.0‘s multicast capabilities.

ATSC 3.0, he noted, will provide “a great big pipe” to shuttle HVEC-encoded video over the air to homes in places like Boise, which often have limited choices for broadband access, and find themselves limited by usage caps that aren’t friendly to HD or 4K video streaming. Other rural markets don’t have access to broadband — or the ability to stream video — at all.

Evoca will still require an internet connection to work, but it will only require a “single-digit” megabits-per-second download speed to sufficient, Achilles said.

Aiming to eventually deploy its service nationally, Edge Networks will approach each market individually, providing a wireless internet solution, for example, to hard-to reach rural places.

Boise, Idaho-based Edge Networks Inc., an ATSC 3.0-focused company headed by veteran wireless industry technologist Todd Achilles, plans to launch a new virtual pay TV service targeted to second and tertiary markets without ample choice for cost-efficient high-speed internet.

The privately funded Edge Networks, which received permission last July from the FCC to establish two ATSC 3.0 stations in the Boise market, plans to launch the new pay TV service this summer in Boise. 

The service, branded Evoca, will include more than 80 channels, including the major broadcast networks, as well as “major” news, sports and entertainment HD channels found in other major virtual pay TV bundles, Achilles told Next TV in a phone interview this week. The bundle will include some 4K programming. Access to major SVOD services will also be integrated. 

The service will feature a proprietary set-top box and over-the-air antenna, and it will be priced at under $50. Achilles, a former Hewlett-Packard and T-Mobile executive, said many of the major details of the service are still being hammered out. 

“But the service will have no hidden fees or surcharges, or this that and the other,” he said.

Also read: ATSC 3.0: Everything You Need to Know About the Broadcast Industry’s ‘NextGen’ Technology Standard

“This is not a pure streaming service; we’re not clogging the internet with a bunch of redundant streams,” Achilles said, noting that Evoca will be based on the multicast capabilities of the ATSC 3.0 broadcast standard. 

ATSC 3.0, he noted, will provide “a great big pipe” to shuttle HVEC-encoded video over the air to homes in places like Boise, which often have limited choices in terms of broadband access, and find themselves limited by usage caps that aren’t friendly to HD and 4K video streaming. 

Other markets in rural places don’t have access to broadband—or the ability to stream video—at all.

Evoca will still require an internet connection to work, but it will only require a “single-digit” megabits-per-second download speed, Achilles said. 

Aiming to eventually deploy its service nationally, Edge Networks will approach each market individually, providing a wireless internet solution, for example, to hard-to-reach rural places. 

“There are 50 million households who are underserved and in these tier 2 and tier 3 markets,” Achilles said. “These people are desperate for an alternative pay TV solution. And price is the most important driver in these markets.”

A Boise company is using the new ATSC 3.0 broadcast technology to launch a new challenge to cable and satellite at a time when consumers are cutting the cord.

Edge Networks said its Evoca service will provide more than 80 news and sports and local channels for less than $50 a month. Evoca also lets users access local channels via built-in antennas, video on demand and streaming apps via their internet connections.

Viewers will be able to switch between broadcast, cable and internet programming using Evoca’s user interface and a single remote control.

“Thanks to major advances in broadcast TV technology, combined with our own proprietary systems, Evoca delivers a buffer-free 4K TV-watching experience,” said Edge Networks CEO Todd Achilles.

By using ATSC 3.0, our signal doesn’t affect and isn’t affected by internet bandwidth in the home,” Achilles said. “Regardless of how many video games, movies or video conferences may be streaming, viewers will always receive a better quality picture and more reliable service than what they experience today.”

Edge Networks has launched two stations in Boise that are broadcasting using the ATSC 3.0 standard and has permission to launch nine more. The stations in Boise are airing a test bundle of channels that can’t be seen with current TV receivers, only with the kind of ATSC 3.0 receiver that will be built into Evoca devices. The service will launch there this summer, and the company plans to expand into more markets in 2021.

When TV switched from analog to digital, Sinclair Broadcast Group and other station owners talked about using secondary digital channels to launch cable-like services, but those ideas never came to fruition.

In an interview with Broadcasting+Cable, Achilles said that ATSC 3.0 offered a better opportunity because the technology made broadcast part of the internet.

“I don't think a lot of people that have been in this industry for their careers appreciate what a big deal that is,” said Achilles, who was in the mobile industry when people started to access the internet on their phones.

“That changed everything," he added. “This will rejuvenate broadcasting.”

Edge Networks is backed by a strategic partner that Achilles declined to identify. More investors are expected to come in to help Evoca roll out. 

The service will lean heavily on subscription revenues, but the technology lends itself to the kind of targeted advertising that is making over-the-top and connected TV popular with marketers.

In addition to ATSC 3.0 supporting a sharp 4K picture, “with the economic efficiencies of broadcast, we can deliver this at half the price of the incumbents,” Achilles said.

Consumers are looking for a low price point, but the also are tired of hidden fees, so Evoca won’t have them. “What we're trying to have is a very clear, crisp, transparent pricing model, with none of the fees and surcharges folks are just frankly tired of,” he said.

Achilles added that Evoca was starting out in Boise for a reason. ”Most second and third tier markets are under-served. There’s usually one legacy provider and they’ve got monopoly pricing and the quality of service tends to be low,” he said. “So we see a huge opportunity in second- and third-tier markets and that’s really across the West and the Midwest and the Southeast. But eventually, this is a nationwide service.”

Programmers have been receptive to the Evoca pitch and Achilles said he has a number of programming deals in place because networks are looking for growth opportunities in this cord-cutting era. Channel lineups will be announced closer to launch.

Evoca won’t be able to let subscribers choose their own networks on an a la carte basis, but it will be able to fine-tune channel lineups on a market-by-market basis.

“What’s relevant in Boise is different from Boston, right,” Achilles said. “Nobody watches that 200 channel bundle, so we’re really trying to target it to be relevant and hit a good clean price point.”

Price is especially important because people are worried about their health and their jobs because of the Coronavirus crisis. “The product we’re offering is heavy on news and local content. It’s built around the community, and that’s exactly what people want now, he said. “We’re coming in with something that saves households money. I think there’s a ton of value there.”