ZillionTV Teams with ISPs to Offer $50 Set-Top Streamer

The latest attempt to crack the burgeoning set-top market will use a complex partnership between content providers and ISPs, as well as targeted ads, to keep costs down.

The market for set-top streaming boxes got a little more crowded this week with the addition of ZillionTV, an ad-injecting box that redeems itself with among the lowest entry prices so far: $50. The company unveiled plans for its upcoming service on Wednesday.

Rather than side-stepping cable companies altogether as boxes like Roku and Vudu have done, ZillionTV will actually partner with ISPs to offer its boxes as an additional piece of equipment for subscribers. Content will from a variety of partners, including Disney, 20th Century Fox Television, NBC Universal, Sony Pictures and Warner Bros.

Though some aspects of the service will operate on a pay-per-view model, ZillionTV also hopes to offer free on-demand content to be subsidized with ads. Though users will pay for the box itself and a service activation fee, there will be no continuous subscription costs associated with the service.

The box itself will be optimized for truly on-demand streaming content, with only a small amount of memory to buffer content, minimizing cost. It will use a Wii-style air remote that works like a motion-sensing mouse.

ZillionTV’s creators hope to roll out the service on multiple networks by the end of the year, when they expect to have 15,000 titles readily available for streaming.