Sezmi is launching a pilot program in Los Angeles that could some day cut your cable bill in half, provided you're willing to give up some key programming in exchange.
The Sezmi service, which is temporarily being offered for free to pilot participants in Los Angeles, sends HD cable and broadcast channels over the air to a set-top receiver, where they can be recorded into individual user profiles with a 1 TB DVR box. Users can also watch Web TV content, such as YouTube and podcasts, and purchase on-demand video from CinemaNow. According to Technologizer, participating cable channels include Animal Planet, Bravo, Cartoon Network, CNN, Comedy Central, Discovery, MSNBC, MTV, Nickelodeon, Oxygen, SyFy, TBS, TCM, TLC, TNT and VH1.
As pointed out by Zatz not Funny, the glaring omission is ESPN, so you'd have to be willing to forgo a lot of sports content. Also, the full cable-like package, called Sezmi Supreme, only applies in areas where Sezmi is leasing spectrum from cable providers. That includes Los Angeles, but it's not clear where else the service will expand. A basic package includes only broadcast channels that you'd normally get with an antenna, Web TV and on-demand video.
After the pilot program ends, Sezmi Supreme will cost $25 per month, and the basic plan will cost $5, but you'll also have to buy the hardware for $300 or rent it for a price unspecified.
As an ex-cable subscriber, I tend to get excited (maybe irrationally so) over startups that intend to undercut cable with a lot of the same core programming. Sezmi impresses me because it doesn't need any bandwidth from Internet service providers -- i.e., the competition -- for its cable content, instead using the same ATSC spectrum of digital television.
For that reason, Sezmi may have longer legs than ZillionTV, which aims to provide unlimited ad-supported television over the Web for a one-time fee. Still, cable and satellite alternatives remain unproven as businesses, so I'd be nervous plunking down $300 for the hardware without a money-back guarantee if the service doesn't last for more than a few years.
