New Cable System Simplifies TV Billing, Bundling

A company known as U.S. Digital Television (USDTV) has come up with a new billing package that cable companies haven’t thought of, or at least, refuse to offer. The Utah company says its “cable-style” service does not rely on coaxial cable; it uses a collection of channels that are beamed by other cable companies. It collects those channels—including ESPN2, Disney Channel and the Discovery Channel—from cable and broadcast feeds and sends them to a single digital transmission tower. It then uses a once-idle bandwidth, which it bought from the stations and beams it to standard UHF/VHF antennas.

It does it with permission, of course, and sells the package for $19.95 a month, not including a $100 set-top box. The package includes local broadcast outlets, so consumers pay a lower price to get cable-type entertainment. USDTV plans to launch in Las Vegas this year and to move it to 30 markets by year’s end.