TV Answer Man, I went yesterday to sign up for Locast in case we lose our local ABC station on Dish and you couldn’t sign up. Do you know what the problem is? — Katie, Arlington, Virginia.
Katie, Locast was one of several ways you could continue watching a local channel (ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox) even if your satellite, streaming or cable service doesn’t carry it due to a carriage dispute or another reason. But the free streaming service, which was available in roughly three dozen markets, yesterday suspended operations immediately. Yes, Locast is now no cast.
What happened?
Locast this week lost a court ruling in a legal dispute with the broadcasters who content that the streamer violated their copyrights by transmitting their local channel signals without their permission. Normally, a pay TV service must pay the networks, or their affiliates, varying fees to offer them to a paying audience. But Locast claimed it was permitted to offer the signals for free because it was a non-profit and did not require its customers to pay a subscription fee.
However, Locast did interrupt programming to ask for $5 monthly “donations,” and the court agreed with the broadcasters that this skirted the law’s spirit. While the court didn’t shut Locast down, or rule specifically on the copyright claim, the ruling has made it difficult for Locast to operate without those $5 donations. Rather than continue to stream while seeking new funding, Locast issued a statement saying it was suspending service.
“As a non-profit, Locast was designed from the very beginning to operate in accordance with the strict letter of the law, but in response to the court’s recent rulings, with which we respectfully disagree, we are hereby suspending operations, effective immediately,” the company says at its web site.
Will Locast come back? It’s possible, but note that the broadcasters won a similar battle in 2014 against Aereo which was also delivering their signals without their permission. In that case, the court shut down Aereo, saying it was violating the copyright law. Even if Locast found new funding, the service would likely ultimately reach a similar fate.
So as of now, you will need an antenna or pursue another option to watch your local channel if you lose it in the Dish-Sinclair fee fight. By the way, Sports Business Journal has reported that Dish and Sinclair have signed a short-term carriage extension that pushes the deadline to September 15.
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Katie, hope that makes sense. Happy viewing, and stay safe!
Have a question about new TV technologies? Send it to The TV Answer Man at swann@tvpredictions.com. Please include your first name and hometown in your message.
— Phillip Swann
Surprised they haven’t shut down the Antenna Companies.
They are making money from the sale of Antennas.
What happened to the Good Old Days, ?
Broadcasters made a Fortune from Commercials,
The same reason gun makers cannot be charged with murder. Antenna makers just product the antenna, Broadcaster say that as long as you recieve your signal directly from the broadcaster over the air, all is fair and good.
Broadcaster still make a fortune\from commercials. only now the government says that they are allowed to make much much more. That’s the American way.
The broadcasters should be making it easier, not harder to watch their stations. If they make it too hard or expensive people will stop watching and they will become irrelevant, how would that affect those ad revenues I wonder?
This is the dumbest thing the TV networks and stations gave ever done. My wife watches CBS morning show as she exercises. Signal is terrible on antenna so we were very happy users of Locast. Now we will just not watch any local TV station and CBS and the station’s ads.
Personally, I think broadcast TV ad the old networks are a dead system. Just stream for a reasonable price and it is a no brainer. But I looked up and to get CBS streamed would be part of a bigger package and it us like 64 bucks A MONTH.
This is why we watch Amazon prime and Netflix for all entertainment.
I only watch networks for sports anyway. drama, sitcoms filled with commercials, all politically correct, those are useless
There should be a service available like Locast that lets you stream your local channels, even if it costs a little more than $5 a month. The only service I can find to stream local channels live costs $65 per month. Without streaming the only channel I can pick up at my location is CBS. I mainly used Locast to watch football games. They dumped it a week before NFL season begins.
Sounds like the Courts and the Govt. DON’T want us to watch TV.
Why do the Court Rulings keep making it harder to enjoy TV.
We don’t ask permission to use an Antenna
The rules need to be CHANGED.
They should Rule in favor of the CUSTOMER, Not the Broadcasters
Hope the NEW DirecTV tells the Broadcasters who is the BOSS.
I am sad about loosing Locast, I was happy to donate to their cause as even with decent indoor antenna coverage I did not get all channels available. Network logic escapes me as they should be happy for more viewers. The worst thing the FCC did was remove the public good licensing clause which gave birth to big cable and the demise of television journalism. I hope Locast can reorganize and come back.
The courts and the major broadcasters are forcing folks to “,buy” into cable or streaming services. Get an OTA antenna they say … What about those who live beyond the signal reach of their digital world? Believe it or not we exist right here in central Florida! Come down to Poinciana and try to get a TV signal with an antenna.
Absolutely I’m in NPR and have the same problem.
No Signal at all…
Truthfully, Locast was a service that was providing something the networks should be required to provide on their own. If that court shuts services like this down they should make sure that the broadcasters that the government makes a TON of money from sufficiently provide an accessible signal available to all.
Since the switch to digital TV there are so many fringe areas that used to get reception no longer gets ANYTHING, this includes news and emergency broadcasts.
retransmission services like locast were doing both the public and the networks a huge favor, but the networks are greedy. They want it all and don’t want to invest in their equipment to be able to provide this service.
The ruling is BS and needs to be overturned.
Until then I won’t be watching broadcast TV because I DO NOT want to pay $65 just to get local channels and be bombarded with commercials. Every other service bundles local channels with a bunch of crap that hardly anyone wants to watch anyway.
But that’s the American Big Business Way. Force people to pay for what they used to get for free. The commercials were supposed to be to pay for the broadcasting. Now the networks want that plus they want you tp pay for the privilege of watching commercials.
Screw Them!!
I agree I principal but if locast had not made it a practice to show ads up the wazoo unless you made a $5 donation every month then the judge would have ruled differently. It was their greed that did them in….R.j.
I agree, They want to make millions on people watching TV! I bought a satellite dish in the late 80’S. went outside to adjust to what satellite I wanted to watch. They broadcasted everything! No commercials, No monthly payments, That was un heard of paid tv…Someone said, Hey I can make big bucks scrambling and charging for this entertainment..They pay big bucks to keep people from hacking and fixing their cards and tv boxes and charge more and more to make up for It. I’ll stick with my getting the shows another way! Gona sue me for my low income disability for MY hard work my whole life. People need to stick up to these corporations and off the beaten path Insurance companies?? Regulate them!!
I disagree Locast was greedy. It was aggravating add shutting off program but I willingly donate $5 here and there for other good software programs, 1 called VLC been stable and excellent to play, edit and burn music and video.
I wouldn’t want to work for free! $5 bucks? How about $7.50 Locast? Come back on!!
Please locast come back on and operate as a profit company and charge a monthly (or yearly) fee. I would be happy to pay for the convenience. As of now, I just quit watching the major networks. I will be happy to see locast back for us all!
Locast is the best thing that I have seen in recent years. It gave the OTA channel perfectly for those of us who were on the fringes of receiving stations. Instead of have shows cut in and out it made then steady. I can not afford cable nor would I pay just on principle. I use my Roku stick instead but it was nice to not to have to hunt for local news when watching Locast. Please, Please return it to Roku. That judge should be on our end of the budget. Many places in Central Florida do not even allow an Antenna installed. I was under the impression that everyone was entitled to have free TV for safety reasons . $5.50 is pretty close to free.