Didja, the company behind Phoenix BTV and Bay Area BTV, said it landed another $12 million round of funding according to an article posted early this morning by Jeff Baumgartner at Multichannel News. It also sounds like he got a chance to talk a bit with Didja CEO Jim Long.

Most of the article matches the speculation I’ve had, that Didja is using its current free test markets to try out different service configurations to see what works best. Although not stated, they’re also shaking out the technology so it’ll be ready for paying customers later. As I wrote yesterday, each local-market version provides a wide collection of unpopular channels (relatively speaking, of course) for which Didja has secured streaming rights, and each is only available to local viewers.

Baumgartner’s article had some hopeful notes. Thanks to the new funding, Didja plans to launch a Los Angeles version in early 2018 and to add more channels in the Bay Area market where the company makes its home.

In general, it sounds like Didja knows it will need the major broadcast stations to gain wide acceptance. “Looking ahead, Didja is also noodling on a longer-term business model by which it would offer a package of local broadcast networks for about $15 per month – with about two-thirds of that going to the network partners.” Speaking as a former NimbleTV and Aereo subscriber, I’d be up for that.