User:JSFarman/sandbox/Layer3

Layer3 TV is an American cable television and video technology company. Targeted toward high-end consumers, Layer3 TV uses an all-IP infrastructure to deliver HD content from traditional broadcast television, cable TV, premium channels, and streaming video services such as Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu. The platform integrates social media and internet-connected home devices, and provides enhanced search and discovery functions.

History
Layer 3 was founded by Jeff Binder, the founder of VOD startup Broadbus Technologies, which Motorola acquired in 2006 for $181 million, and David Fellows, a "legend in the cable industry" who was previously the CTO at Comcast and AT&T Broadband. Binder and Fellows first partnered to found Genovation Capital, an investment firm which evaluated startups and cable companies to invest in or buy. In 2012, as cable television competed with internet TV, Binder began working on building a new company that would pair "great software with better technology." Internet video services relied on commercial broadband, and were then unable to offer the programming available on traditional television, and Binder believed that cable companies would be unable to improve their video technology at the speed required to meet heightened customer expectations. After building a "massive, comprehensive Excel spreadsheet about how to attack the business," Binder brought the idea to Fellows.

Funded by TPG, Fellows and Binder founded Layer3 TV in Boston in 2013. They assembled a management team of cable and broadcast veterans, including Lindsay Gardner, a programming and distribution executive who had served in senior positions at Fox and Cox Communications, Chuck Hasek, the principle architect at Time Warner Cable, and Robert Scheffler, an engineer who had been awarded 17 technology-related U.S. and international patents. Eric Kuhn, then the head of social media at CAA, was recruited to run the company's marketing. In March of 2014, Layer3 raised raised $21 million in series A funding. The round was led by North Bridge Venture Partners and Evolution Media Growth Partners, an investment company whose stakeholders include Evolution Media Capital, CAA, TPG Growth and Participant Media. In May, the company relocated its headquarters to Denver, Colorado. Layer 3 raised an additional $51 million in June 2015, with second investments from Evolution Media Partner and North Bridge Venture Partners in addition to investors the company did not identify.

Operating in stealth mode,and identifying themselves only as a "next generation cable," Layer 3 generated significant media attention. Its January 2016 beta trial, conducted under the name Umio in Midland and Kingwood, Texas, was covered extensively in trade publications, and in April, journalists formally previewed the platform. In April 2016, Engadget wrote that Layer3 "theoretically, tackles some of the biggest problems you run into with conventional providers like Comcast or Time Warner Cable. For a start, Layer3 wants to avoid the overly compressed video that you typically endure -- it's using efficient HEVC (H.265) encoding and a fiber optic backbone to keep bandwidth use in check and maintain the highest quality possible. Wired reported  that the Layer3 TV platform "boasts an elegant design–combining pay TV channels, including traditional broadcasters and the full array of cable channels you’d expect with Comcast or Time Warner, with Internet-enabled video in a channel guide where it’s easy enough for anyone to find what they want to watch. After you use it a few times, Layer3 will learn to show you the programming you are most likely to want to watch first. All of it downloads quickly." The Verge wrote that "Because it doesn't have to mix in any legacy tech and worry about the traditional cable-spectrum crunch, Layer3 can offer unlimited channels, and higher quality video — including 4K. But Layer3 isn't an "over-the-top" service in the vein of Sling TV or PlayStation Vue, it's real "cable" in the sense that video is piped directly over Layer3's owned and leased networks and into your home — no weird, unreliable "open internet" stuff to get in the way."

In September 2016, Layer 3 debuted in parts of Illinois, Indiana, Washington DC, Maryland,and Virginia. Featuring a 4k-ready set-top box designed by BMW, a high-capacity DVR, an advanced program guide and social media and streaming integration, it offered 200 HD channels with additional options for add-on such as individual channels, thematic genre tiers and premium add-ons. Through distribution agreements with media companies including Fox, Disney and ESPN Media Networks, Turner, NBCUniversal, Viacom, CBS, Discovery, HBO, Starz, Epix, Scripps Networks Interactive, as wells as regional sports networks from Comcast, Fox Sports and Pac-12 Networks, it provides access to more than 20,000 movies and TV show episodes on-demand.