New advertisement in Dallas, AIRBOX TELEVISION

[boba]

I saw an advertisement on CH33 last night for a new OTA service offering premium movie channels for a fee and OTA & Subchannels FREE. The box costs a $100 and it looks like Radio Shack (what's left of it) will be the main retailer. They have a website with no information on it except to call 855-247-2697. They definitely don't instill confidence that they will be around for long.

Back in about 2005-2006 USDTV started a very similar service using subchannels for the pay services. This looks like the ION channels are the host and broadcasts are using MPEG4 so they can pack more channels on the carrier. Airbox is starting in Houston, Dallas,Phoenix, Jacksonville, FL & Mamphis. If they are as under capitalized as USDTV I don't expect six months of service.

 

[T134]

About a year or two ago I ran my HDhomerun through TS Reader and saw tons of channels (most encrypted with Nagra) on the ION station for MSP DMA. The guys at my place did indeed respond that it was this pay service. I never see it advertised and haven't heard anything more until now. Got to wonder how viable it is long term especially if the Rat Shack is involved. I think back when I found it the website still only had the number to call so it doesn't sound like they made any progress there.

 

[jegrant]

https://www.airbox.com/ They claim to offer multiple channels of Starz, Showtime, and Epix.
The package layout:
Starz Pack: Starz, Starz Comedy, Starz Kids & Family, Encore
Showtime Pack: Showtime, Showtime 2, Flix, The Movie Channel
Epix Pack: Epix, Epix2

Any one package is $20/mo and to get all 3 is $35/mo. I feel like the $20 is too high, but the $35 for all 3 seems like a decent deal. Also worth considering that you don't have to buy "basic cable" and don't have to pay retrans fees with this setup.

They also apparently offer various Event PPVs. I wonder if they black out one of their existing channels when a PPV is on? Or if they have a channel set aside to carry PPV events?

IMO: This would be a slightly better offer if the "Airbox" could be plugged into the internet (or had wifi) to access SVOD from the 3 premium channels they sell.

 

[NashGuy]

Interesting. Definitely overpriced at $20 per month for any of these services as you can subscribe to the new standalone streaming Showtime service for $11 per month. Epix can typically be had for $5 to 7 per month. $35 for all three isn't awful IF you're getting all those channels in 1080i HD AND you also get access to their authenticated streaming platforms for on-demand viewing, e.g. Showtime Anytime, Starz Play, etc. But even if all that is the case, given the fact that you have to buy a special box for $100 just to start the service means that this business is DOA. Makes me wonder why big players like Showtime and Starz would even bother.

 

[boba]

https://www.airbox.com/ They claim to offer multiple channels of Starz, Showtime, and Epix.
The package layout:
Starz Pack: Starz, Starz Comedy, Starz Kids & Family, Encore
Showtime Pack: Showtime, Showtime 2, Flix, The Movie Channel
Epix Pack: Epix, Epix2

Any one package is $20/mo and to get all 3 is $35/mo. I feel like the $20 is too high, but the $35 for all 3 seems like a decent deal. Also worth considering that you don't have to buy "basic cable" and don't have to pay retrans fees with this setup.

They also apparently offer various Event PPVs. I wonder if they black out one of their existing channels when a PPV is on? Or if they have a channel set aside to carry PPV events?

IMO: This would be a slightly better offer if the "Airbox" could be plugged into the internet (or had wifi) to access SVOD from the 3 premium channels they sell.

Where did you get this pricing information? It isn't on their website, and my call to the 855# didn't get those prices but I did get a $10 package of 5 Spanish programs. In Dallas my DISH receiver shows68 -1 thru 4 as MPEG2 Ion channels and 11 MPEG4 channels that the receiver locks onto. Even with MPEG 4 compression they must be at 480I maximum compression to squeeze that all on one OTA channel.

 

[Mr Tony]

About a year or two ago I ran my HDhomerun through TS Reader and saw tons of channels (most encrypted with Nagra) on the ION station for MSP DMA.

There still are 3 stations in that mux
http://www.rabbitears.info/market.php?request=station_search&callsign=kpxm

One of my converter boxes (Homeworx) logs them in the list. But as you noted they are scrambled

 

[jegrant]

When I go to the website, this is what I see at https://www.airbox.com/packages - see the attached screen shot:

 

[jegrant]

Also here's a rough map of service areas, based on where they have retail stores (mostly Radio Shacks from what I see). https://www.airbox.com/get-it-now

 

[andy_horton]

I know there are no "dumb" questions, as Ice says, but do they carry locals?

 

[Mr Tony]

I know there are no "dumb" questions, as Ice says, but do they carry locals?

no.

All Airbox is is a few scrambled channels that are on the Ion affiliate in some areas. You would get the locals the same way you currently do

 

[andy_horton]

no.

Thanks, Ice

 

[Mr Tony]

none of the links work now. They all go to a coming soon splash page

 

[andy_horton]

Could the company start carrying locals, or would it be another disaster like the other company, the name fails me now, that had to shut down retransmitting locals? IMO, they should be able to. With cable, I pay a 3.25 fee for retrans fee for network tv anyway. Why not just add that into the cost?

 

[Mr Tony]

Could the company start carrying locals,

no. All Airbox does is take bandwidth from the Ion affiliate in the area and rebroadcasts some scrambled channels.
The rest of your locals are unfazed

 

[andy_horton]

Makes sense. So that's why we don't have the service here. No Ion affiliate. National feed on cable

 

[bobvick]

How are they cramming 10 channels, plus all of Ion's sub channels in one 6mhz block of spectrum? The quality has to be horrible. It's over priced too if you ask me. I bet it's not HD.

 

[Tampa8]

https://www.airbox.com/ They claim to offer multiple channels of Starz, Showtime, and Epix.
The package layout:
Starz Pack: Starz, Starz Comedy, Starz Kids & Family, Encore
Showtime Pack: Showtime, Showtime 2, Flix, The Movie Channel
Epix Pack: Epix, Epix2

Any one package is $20/mo and to get all 3 is $35/mo. I feel like the $20 is too high, but the $35 for all 3 seems like a decent deal. Also worth considering that you don't have to buy "basic cable" and don't have to pay retrans fees with this setup.

They also apparently offer various Event PPVs. I wonder if they black out one of their existing channels when a PPV is on? Or if they have a channel set aside to carry PPV events?

IMO: This would be a slightly better offer if the "Airbox" could be plugged into the internet (or had wifi) to access SVOD from the 3 premium channels they sell.

I believe you either misunderstood or missed what the site said. (or the site was not clear?) Airbox has some kind of "basic" package that is $10. I saw it broadcasting live in Houston on a test box. and it appeared the package was about 6 Spanish channels. Then to add Starz would be $10 more, for a total of $20. When I saw it Starz was the only add on option but it was in testing.

 

[KE4EST]

All I am getting is coming soon. Nothing else on the site. They must have saw this thread and made changes.

 

[Trip]

Not HD, as far as I know, and MPEG-4 instead of MPEG-2.

- Trip

 

[boba]

Could the company start carrying locals, or would it be another disaster like the other company, the name fails me now, that had to shut down retransmitting locals? IMO, they should be able to. With cable, I pay a 3.25 fee for retrans fee for network tv anyway. Why not just add that into the cost?

This service uses OTA broadcasters so their receiver can tune all the local OTA channels and can descramble the channels you subscribe to. Seeing the OTA channels are FREE I guess you could say they are included.