Well the main reason for startups not doing this is that broadcasting (at least of new content) is a land of exclusive deals over varying size territories. In

Well the main reason for startups not doing this is that broadcasting (at least of new content) is a land of exclusive deals over varying size territories. In order to offer content you would essentially have two options: 1) Bid national scale against the big players for enough content to fill your channel which wouldn't be within reach of anything I would normally picture as a start up. OR 2) Make arrangements with each of the current local exclusive rights holders and have Geographic holes where you couldn't make the deals (which might mean different content is blacked out in each area). The best chance might be if you could start in one large broadcast market where you could find an amenable local broadcast partner AND cable company. I wouldn't expect it to be easy or profitable though. Could established players do it? Maybe although it might depend on the exact structure of their current deals.