Evoca TV broadcasts 60 channels for half the price of cable

In the days when the world was young, rocks were still soft and cartoons were shown only on Saturday mornings, television was broadcast over the air using the fossil technology of analog signals received by a physical antenna wired to a cathode-ray tube television set.

Now broadcast TV is poised on the edge of making a comeback and an Idaho startup wants to broadcast multiple channels to TV watchers in the Treasure Valley for less than half the price of the average cable TV connection. Edge Networks will sell you its Evoca TV service with 60+ channels for $49 a month. It’s all possible using advances in digital signal encoding.

More than a decade ago, the Federal Communications Commission mandated that all new televisions sold in the U.S. must be able to use digitally-encoded broadcast signals. Up until 2007, American televisions had used analog signals since invention of the television by Idaho native Philo T. Farnsworth.

The switch to the new digital broadcast standard hardly made a bump in the public consciousness. The encoding protocol for digital TV received the counterintuitive label of the Advanced Television Systems Committee standard, or ATSC for short, though hardly anyone noticed.

Fast-forward to November 2017 when the FCC allowed the deployment of the new ATSC 3.0 “Next Gen TV” standard. ATSC 3.0 is different from the first digital TV technology. The updated digital broadcast technology now allows multiple channels of content to be broadcast simultaneously using the UHF bands the FCC reserved for broadcast channels 14 through 83. It also provides handshake protocols for broadcast signals to “talk” to the internet.

“What we’re trying to do is bring a new TV service alternative to medium and small markets, which is why we started here (in Boise),” explained Todd Achilles of Edge Networks. “Small and medium markets have become TV deserts because of consolidation in the cable TV and internet markets. That doesn’t leave any options for consumers in a smaller market like the Treasure Valley.”

“That’s where we come in,” Achilles added. “ATSC 3.0 provides an over-the-air service that’s more efficient than 5G; and for the first time, broadcast can talk to the internet. What we do is broadcast multiple channels of TV content over the air where you receive it using an antenna which talks to our receiver box connected to your TV.”

Edge Networks realized that ATSC 3.0 not only allowed multiple channels to be bundled into one broadcast signal, it also provided the means to combine streaming content over the internet with channels broadcast over the air, making it possible to send both to a home TV through one box without any additional boxes or complicated wiring. This is why Evoca TV customers need to have an internet connect in addition to an antenna and the company’s receiver box.

The result is the delivery of cable, streaming and broadcast channels through one receiver for half the price of the average cable connection. Evoca has negotiated agreements with over 60 channels to date and intends to keep adding more. Evoca TV’s receiver box is called a Scout and is programmed to find the best mix of broadcast plus internet to deliver its channel content, to maximize content and quality while minimizing the bandwidth demand on a customer’s home internet.

Other than the price advantage, Evoca TV has other qualities that puts it ahead of streaming and cable services. “Number one is that we don’t blow you data caps out of the water, which is what happens to people who are streaming all the time,” Achilles remarked.

“Number two is that the quality we deliver is a lot better. That’s because we own the connection from our transmitter and the home. It doesn’t matter if your neighbor’s kid is in his basement hogging up the cable signal for the neighborhood with multiple servers running while playing computer games. It’s much more balanced way to deliver content … the end result is multiple channels, all high quality, without hogging up your internet connection for half the price of the average cable TV service.”

The Evoca TV signal is broadcast using the bandwidth assigned to UHF channels 33 and 34. The service uses one of the broadcast towers on the ridge top above Bogus Basin. The signal can reach up to 100 miles on line of sight, covering most of the Treasure Valley.

“There are a few spots we can’t reach with our signal,” Achilles said. “We’re working on fixing this, but there’s an area in the North End that’s blocked from seeing the transmission antenna up by Bogus. The applies to the Emmett area which is behind a ridge.”

Edge Networks is headquartered in Ketchum and has its broadcast facility in Boise. The company started two years ago. In that time, the firm went from concept to product and is now offering its service in the Boise area as its first market. The company’s current channel offerings are listed on its website at evoca.tv.