Evoca TV, a Meridian, Idaho-based start-up that provided virtual pay TV service using ATSC 3.0 broadcast instead of the internet, will shutter on Saturday, Dec. 31, after a last-ditch effort to secure additional funding failed.
"We are grateful for your support as we challenged the media monopolies to make regional sports and local content more accessible and affordable," Evoca wrote in an email to subscribers. "Unfortunately, we could not secure the funding that we need to continue operations into 2023."
Evoca told customers they can keep their leased Android TV-powered receivers, which are still useful for receiving local NextGen TV broadcast signals.
Evoca said in early December that it only had enough financial resources to operate through the end of the month. Co-founder, President and CEO Todd Achilles told Next TV at the time he was confident that the company would find funding somewhere. It had reportedly raised around $35 million up until that point.
Officially launched in 2020, Evoca TV operated in a handful of markets in Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Oregon and Michigan, packaging local broadcast stations, a few inexpensive cable channels and regional sports networks in skinny bundles priced at around $25 a month. Evoca never disclosed a subscriber count.
The initial play was for rural consumers who lacked the reliable bandwidth needed for streaming. Over time, Evoca turned itself into a platform that enabled inexpensive access to RSNs.
As it fought for survival, Evoca kicked off a Change.org petition in early December, attempting to pressure Stan Kroenke, owner of the Denver Nuggets, Colorado Avalanche and the Altitude TV RSN, into supporting the vMVPD.
That petition gathered only around 3,000 signatures, however.
