After shaking up the wireless business, T-Mobile is taking aim at cable with the acquisition of pay TV startup Layer3 TV. The plan is to use Layer3’s technology and team to launch a new television service in 2018.
Layer3 TV is an unusual service, whose big idea is that people will still pay a lot for TV if the experience is good enough. The company offers a bundle of cable channels for $75 and up, delivered to a fancy set-top box with voice controls, social media integration, and streaming apps like Netflix. But the service is only available in a handful of U.S. markets, and cable companies like Comcast are starting to offer many of the same features.
T-Mobile isn’t talking about pricing, channels, or other details yet, though a teaser video on the carrier’s site shows a glimpse of what the service could look like. Whatever the final result is, expect a heavy dose of anti-cable rhetoric to go with it, as T-Mobile tries to get noticed over the half-dozen other streaming bundles that exist already.
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