Didja, a company that is focused on OTT apps and services that provide access to local broadcast TV networks, has expanded into Los Angeles.
That offering, branded as SoCalBTV, is providing access to select local channels to consumers in greater Los Angeles, including the counties of Los Angeles, San Bernadino, Orange, Inyo, Riverside, Kern and Ventura.
Didja estimates that the app for that market segment, offered on iOS and Android mobile devices and web browsers, is available to more than 5.5 million homes in the southern California.
Didja offering its apps on a localized basis for free, and selling an optional cloud DVR service for $4.95 per month that includes 1 terabyte of storage.
The launch of the service in L.A., targeted to consumers who watch TV using an antenna or live in an area where reception is poor or nonexistent, follows earlier pilots in Phoenix, Ariz. (branded as PhoenixBTV), and in the San Francisco Bay Area (marketed as BayAreaBTV).
Didja obtains rights to carry broadcast TV channels on its apps; it captures the over-the-air TV feeds from partner programmers at a local data center and prepares them for streaming on supported devices in the local region.
The SoCalBTV offering is launching with a lineup of 34 channels, including Skylink, Azteca, KDOC and LSTV. Lacking is access to local broadcast TV feeds from the Big Four – ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox.
Didja reiterated that is “committed to adding all local broadcast channels to LocalBTV in all our markets.”
"Many of our viewers are members of Southern California’s Asian communities, and they depend on us to for news and entertainment programming in their native language," Dennis J. Davis, GM of NRJ Television Stations in Southern California, which has three stations, in the area, said in a statement. "SoCalBTV offers access to our channels on smartphones, which are increasingly used to watch TV by people of all cultures. This method of program delivery helps us reach our audience anywhere they are in the Los Angeles DMA."
Didja said the next markets in line include Houston; Chicago; Washington, D.C.; and New York City, with launches there expected for later this year. Didja recently raised $12 million to help fund those expansion plans.
