Sezmi To Combine Internet Video and Cable TV

A startup is betting that people are tired enough of their cable and satellite bills to take a look at an alternative pay TV system that combines a number of different technologies to deliver programming. Silicon Valley-based Sezmi Corp. is revealing a system Thursday that amounts to a way for phone companies and local TV broadcasters to team up for an end run around satellite and cable. Technical trials are starting shortly, with full-blown commercial trials in some markets, yet unnamed, later this year. The carrot for consumers: monthly fees that are about half those of cable or satellite, according to Sezmi founder Buno Pati. Sezmi's system takes some explaining. At its heart is a TV set-top box that receives video content in three different ways. Two are available through other means: digital over-the-air local broadcasts, the kind that are available to anyone with a digital TV and a rabbit-ear antenna; and Internet downloads through the home's broadband connection. The third delivery method would be unique to Sezmi. It plans to have local TV stations use vacant portions of their airwaves to transmit basic cable channels like Nickelodeon and Discovery. Given the limited spectrum available, the stations won't be able to transmit a full lineup, and only some of it will be in high definition. Sezmi plans to mitigate that by having stations send out the most-watched shows and have the set-top boxes save them on their hard drives, making them available for viewing on demand. The idea is not a separate movie box (a la the-dead-Moviebeam or Vudu), or an alternative content service (like Akimbo), but to completely replace your existing cable or satellite service with one box, and one digital TV receiver. The service’s backend is complex to explain: it marries terrestrial digital broadcast TV delivery system (which most of the existing cable/satellite consumers have never used or known about) with existing broadband service, and replaces a user’s existing cable or satellite service entirely, including their existing boxes. It has tied up with big TV infrastructure providers like Harris Corp and Sun to enable the service. The service will start trials in pilot markets now. It is positioning itself as a co-branded service providers with other ISP, telcos without TV service, and even retailers, and will launch commercially with these providers later this year.
http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-the-box-is-the-box-ambitious-tv-startup-sezmi-launches/

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/ptech/05/01/sezmi.ap/index.html