Yeah, just what the market needs—another skinny live-streamed bundle.
Pleasanton, Calif.-based SiliconDust, maker of the HDHomeRun line of streaming over-the-air tuners, has quietly rolled out a virtual MVPD product including 45 channels for $35 a month.
Starting over the weekend, owners of HDHomeRun streaming devices could sign up for the live-streamed service, which touts ESPN, TNT, CNN and AMC, among its channels.
Retailing for around $120, the HDHomeRun Connect hooks up with an OTA antenna and allows users to stream broadcast networks to connected TVs and mobile devices within the home. SiliconDust recently introduced a DVR extension that lets users record, pause and rewind live-streamed content.
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“Just like you can today, with your channels from your antenna, now you can also record episodes and season programs with HDHomeRun DVR,” the company said in a statement. “All of the functions you are used to using when recording over the air TV will also be available with these new streaming channels. You will see a whole new set of channels added to your line up in our patented SliceView channel list. They’ll show up like any other channel in your TV guide, and the shows on these channels will be recordable just like any other show. Also, don’t forget when you activate the full DVR service you now also have 14 days of guide data so you can plan your recordings well in advance.”
SiliconDust’s product line spans consumer and commercial devices, with the latter line of multicast live-streaming devices combining ATSC tuners and CableCARD functionality, and aimed cable operators.
The consumer line of HDHomeRun devices has proved popular with some tech enthusiasts. But it’s unclear as to how many of the devices are actually in the market.
The virtual MPVD business is currently crowded with large competitors, each operating at a loss in attempt to grow subscriber bases and a critical mass of scale at which content costs go down.
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Among vMVPDs, SiliconDust seems to be most closely competing with Dish Network’s Sling TV, which is complemented by AirTV OTA streaming devices. Most other vMVPDs have instead aggressively sought out deals with local broadcast affiliates rather than integrate OTA schemes into their services.
