Telletopia Foundation, a non-profit start-up streaming video service that debuted in 2013 in San Diego offering a “skinny bundle” of broadcast channels, has shut down after running out of money, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.
Started by former Comcast and Qualcomm executive Gary Koerper and ecoATM co-founder Michael Librizzi, Telletopia was first formed to provide a streaming bundle of broadcast channels to subscribers. The company had hoped that the Federal Communications Commission would classify over-the-top providers as cable companies – which would have forced broadcasters to do business with them – but when that didn’t happen, the company because a Master Antenna TV service.
Unlike Aereo, which offered a bundled service, including broadcast channels, to subscribers for a fee before it was shuttered in 2014, Telletopia had planned to pay broadcasters retransmission consent fees.
According to the Union-Tribune, Telletopia provided free streaming access to broadcast channels to customers in a handful of apartment buildings in San Diego. It also offered a cloud DVR service for $10 per month.
According to the paper, the emergence of skinny bundles from larger OTT providers helped sink the service, which was largely being run as a hobby by its founders, who have pumped about $500,000 of their own money int the service over the past four years. Although Koerper told the paper he would restart the service if he finds more funding, for now, the service is shut down. Telletopia’s website is offline and attempts to reach Koerper were unsuccessful.
